Fime’s PersevalPro Issuer tool has received an additional approval from Groupement des Cartes Bancaires CB. The tool can now be used to test the personalization of payment cards in line with CB’s new CPACE (CPA Contactless Extensions) card personalization specification. CPACE brings consistency across European card schemes to offer a unified experience for cardholders across contact, contactless and mobile payments.

With the new PersevalPro CB CPACE library, Fime’s consultants are supporting French issuers to define and deliver migration strategies for their CB branded projects. Defining and debugging card profiles is essential ahead of in-house pre-validation testing and formal certification in a Fime laboratory, as well as for quality assurance with the PersevalPro Quality Control module. Using the same tool throughout can significantly reduce time-to-market and associated costs.

“Europe is moving to more unified payments systems, and CPACE is a key part of the process,” says Raphaël Guilley, VP Testing Solutions at Fime. “It can bring greater independence for European issuers so it is great to see CB leading the way. Our tool and expertise empower issuers to make this step with confidence, relying on official test plans for a range of schemes to fast-track compliance for single and co-branded projects.”

The joint venture will combine their technological expertise leveraging data to bring digital transformation and reshape financial inclusion in Bharat

Spice Money, India’s leading rural fintech, has entered into a joint venture with Tarya group, Israel’s leading fintech player with 70% P2P market-share in Israel, to bring Bharat to the fore of the ongoing data-led digital revolution by launching a lend-tech platform targeted towards rural India. The synergy between Tarya Fintech and Spice Money will lead to the creation of an innovative, agile, assisted and technologically superior digital lending platform. The JV aims to fill the credit gap in India by offering underserved and underbanked rural India a convenient platform to access credit easily with minimal documentation. This platform will address challenges that have kept rural India financially excluded such as lack of data, limited access and unviable unit economics.

India’s credit gap is estimated to be over $330 billion*. Small businesses and rural consumers find formal credit limited and inaccessible due to the cumbersome application process, lack of financial data, collaterals needed for credit assessment and inappropriate products. This leads to them resorting to often-exploitative informal credit sources. The wide adoption of technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning has turned data into a great enabler for financial inclusion. The credit model in rural India needs to reimagine the products and processes by leveraging AI and ML to enable collection of alternative data, in absence of traditional financial data. This can help to determine a rural business’ credit-worthiness and capabilities.

This new JV would step in with a community lending model enabling rural borrowers to access credit on a digitised assisted platform quickly and seamlessly. The digital lending market in India is expected to grow from $110 billion in 2019 to $350 billion in 2023 on the back of MSMEs’ credit demand of estimated $490 billion along with the increased internet penetration*.

Dilip Modi, Founder, Spice Money, said, “At Spice Money, we serve approx. 20 million monthly transacting customers on an average, through our 7 Lakh Adhikari network across semi urban and rural India. This has helped us observe the multiple financial needs of rural India and the key role that far-reaching technology can play in fulfilling these needs. There is a data and digital-led revolution in financial inclusion waiting to happen in India. Through our joint venture with Tarya, we are confident that we will play an integral role in this revolution in the interiors of our country.” He also added, “One of the major demands has been access to easy loans. Accessible and timely credit is important for the growth of rural India. We have partnered with Tarya to bring in financial inclusion by empowering rural borrowers with access to easy credit. This will further financial freedom in Bharat and lead to overall national development.”

Eyal Elhayany, Founder & CEO, Tarya, said, “India has a huge potential for lending technology, especially in rural areas. India is a great country to diversify and expand in due to the sheer size of its economy and the emerging technological opportunities for collaborations. Technological innovations can easily reach the financially underserved parts to accelerate financial inclusion, as can be seen in the great work Spice Money and its Adhikaris have been doing. Leveraging Spice Money’s rural fintech expertise and experience, we aim to tap into the unaddressed rural credit gap and make it easy for rural India to get loans for their growth and development.”

The Board of Banking Competition Remedies Ltd (BCR) today publishes progress updates for Pool A, B, C and D recipients, providing a summary of performance against their public commitments to the period 30^th June 2021.

The updates of those awarded, their original commitments made and key achievements to date can be found here.

In this reporting period, BCR approved a business case change for iwoca mainly due to reallocation of spend to support future initiatives following success of its lending offering. These changes have now been reflected in its public commitments.

Aidene Walsh, CIF Executive Director, said: “This latest round of reporting continues to demonstrate the strong performance from the majority of awardees in creating new products, services and networks in support of UK SMEs with an increasing number of Public Commitments being met ahead of schedule. Awardees have also delivered strong customer experiences which will serve them well in increasing their SME impact.”

A summary of performance against awardees public commitments can be found in the notes to editors, with links to the full updates provided below:

Pool A ninth quarter update

• Starling Bank Limited public commitment progress update
• Metro Bank plc public commitment progress update
• ClearBank Ltd public commitment progress update

Pool B eighth quarter update

• Investec Bank plc public commitment progress update
• The Co-operative Bank plc public commitment progress update

Pool C seventh quarter update

• Atom Bank plc public commitment progress update
• The Currency Cloud Group Ltd public commitment progress update
• iwoca Ltd public commitment progress update
• Modulr Finance Limited public commitment progress update

Pool D eighth quarter update

• Codat Limited public commitment progress update
• Fluidly Limited public commitment progress update
• Form3 Ltd public commitment progress update
• Funding Options Limited public commitment progress update
• Swoop Finance Limited public commitment progress update

The next progress updates for Pool A, B, C and D awardees will be in November 2021. Pool E awardees will provide their next reporting update in October 2021. As part of BCR’s role in monitoring the way that organisations are using the funds, BCR holds awardees to account on their progress against business plans which includes meeting all the recipients. For more details on how BCR monitors CIF awardees see here.

Pool F: new funding round under the CIF scheme

Following the consultation period for Pool F, BCR has confirmed that the grant sizes to be made available are 2x£5m and 1x£2.5m. The application window opened on Wednesday 25 August with over 60 companies indicating early interest. Further details can be found here.

Notes to editors:

A summary of Pool A, B, C and D performance against public commitments / business cases

Pool A ninth quarter update

Starling Bank Limited public commitment progress update: Starling now has 374,245 SME customers, resulting in a 6.3% share of the UK SME market. Over 54,000 SME businesses have directly benefited from the £2.3bn of lending made available by Starling to date. Starling continues to enhance its launched products, for example, customers are now able to receive payments in foreign currencies into their EUR or GBP accounts, and access the first two sessions of Starling’s Business Class videos.

Metro Bank plc public commitment progress update: Metro launched an SME brand campaign in June which focuses on its dedication to helping small businesses thrive via the special relationship it has with customers. While some of its lending initiatives are delayed due to the prioritisation of government lending schemes earlier in the year, Metro remains on track to achieve all its public commitments.

ClearBank Ltd (CTBB) public commitment progress update: CTBB now has 353,014 SME customers, resulting in a 5.9% share (5% directly attributable to Pool A) of the UK SME market, and has built significant brand It also continues to develop and launch propositions, including enhancing its fast onboarding process not only through the app but also through the web.

Pool B eighth quarter update

Investec Bank plc public commitment progress update: Investec is now supporting over 3,100 SMEs through its Business Savings Account, Lending and FX propositions. To date, it has managed over £258m in savings for SMEs, lent over £125m under CBILS and BBLS, and clients have bought over £198m in FX.

The Co-operative Bank plc public commitment progress update: The Co-operative Bank is making strong progress with its transformational initiatives. It continued to improve its onboarding journey, mobile app for business customers and suite of product and services (including Business Concierge services and SME insurance). The Co-operative Bank was confirmed as the UK’s best rated high street bank for ESG credentials in June 2021 by Sustainalytics.

Pool C seventh quarter update

Atom Bank plc public commitment progress update: Atom has over £0.6bn of funding applied for through its secured lending CBILS product (including £143m of BCR attributable secured lending). It also achieved a market leading customer Net Promoter Score (NPS) of +88, surpassing the committed 2025 target. It is, however, experiencing delays to two commitments associated with the challenges to delivery of its Next Generation Broker Portal due to challenges with a partner.

The Currency Cloud Group Ltd (Currencycloud) public progress commitment: Currencycloud has processed cross-border payments for 7.1% of all UK SMEs trading internationally (over 23,700 UK SMEs) over the last twelve months and continues to enhance its cross-border payments proposition. This quarter it signed 20 financial institutions serving UK SMEs and UK-based Fintechs.

iwoca Ltd public commitment progress / business case update: iwoca has successfully achieved its no and limited personal guarantee commitment almost three years ahead of schedule, originating £376m as at 30 June 2021. In addition, it launched a new iwocaPay partnership with Futrli with the number of transactions tripling in the last quarter.

Modulr public commitment progress update: Modulr delivered its second automated Onboarding initiative - integration with PassFort, and launched Payment Initiation Services (PISP) Standing Orders and Confirmation of Payee Inbound this quarter. It also successfully launched its Alpha pilot Integration with Brightpay. It has surpassed its SME reach commitment for the Payment Innovation product.

Pool D eighth quarter update

Codat Limited public commitment progress update: Codat continues to make strong progress having delivered 4 out of its 7 public commitments. It remains on track to outperform against its remaining commitments. Codat continues to support banks and lenders with its application journey solution for the government backed loan scheme, which has been deployed by UK Tier 1 & 2 lenders.

Fluidly Limited public commitment progress update: Fluidly made further enhancements to its VAT insights tool and investigated alternative data sources for the benefit of a wider range of SMEs. This quarter, it offered 1,000 free licenses to members of the Enterprise Nations network enabling SMEs to avail of its wide-reaching functionality.

Form3 Ltd public commitment progress update: Form3 continued to build its SWIFT solution whilst engaging in sales and marketing activities in advance of launch.

Funding Options Limited public commitment progress: Funding Options launched Funding Cloud^TM, a platform that connects businesses, lenders and partners to facilitate and secure funding at scale. It continues to surpass lending value targets despite the number of additional SMEs being slightly behind target due to government backed loan schemes.

Swoop Finance Limited public commitment progress update: Swoop launched a new unsecured lending partnership with BNP Paribas and developed an Equity Scorecard with NatWest for its high growth customers. It continues to forge ahead with key partnerships in supporting SMEs to apply for and secure finance. 248k SMEs are utilising Swoop’s Virtual CFO marketplace and 835 providers have been onboarded. It continues to experience challenges in reaching some impact targets due to the current economic environment but remains committed to its ambitious targets as the market moves towards recovery.

 The ongoing semiconductor shortage caught many businesses off guard as production of chips slowed down during the global pandemic. From domestic appliances to cars, almost every technological device relies on semiconductors, and the global shortage has taken its toll: car manufacturers idled their production lines1 or – on the more creative side – utilized dummy chips in their production, which will be replaced by functional semiconductors as soon as the capacity allows it2 . While there is a shortage, demand for semiconductor technology increases in the light of a global 5G rollout, interconnectivity, and smarter consumer technology. Major Australian issuer ETF Securities now releases an ETF, the ETFS Semiconductor ETF (ASX: SEMI). This fund is the first Australian passive investment productin that space. 

In its market forecast, the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) expects the worldwide semiconductor market growth to rise from 6.8 percent in 2020 to a staggering 19.7 percent in the year 2021, which corresponds to a market size of US$ 527 billion. For 2022, WSTS expects growth by 8.8 percent.3 Enjoying tailwinds, companies active in the semiconductor business can be expected to outperform for the foreseeable future.

The ETF tracks the Solactive Global Semiconductor 30 Index, which is a representation of 30 companies active across the semiconductor value chain. Eligible companies must be part of the Solactive GBS Global Markets Semiconductor All Cap USD Index and classified – by a common industry classification system – in the semiconductors industry, or semiconductor equipment and services and semiconductor manufacturing subsectors. Furthermore, companies must have their primary listing in one of the countries that are part ofthe Developed Markets – as defined by the Solactive Country Classification Framework (https://www.solactive.com/documents/solactivecountry-classification/) – or in South Korea or Taiwan. All eligible securities are ranked based on their free float market capitalization in descending order, and the top 30 ranked securities are selected for index inclusion.

Timo Pfeiffer, Chief Markets Officer at Solactive, comments: “Semiconductors serve as the heart and soul of every electric device, and with a growing need for chips to fuel our future smart economy, companies active in this megatrend now are well positioned for future growth. ETF Securities realized the vast potential of this industry, which will accompany us for the next decades to come. We are excited to be part of this thematic ETF release in Australia, and we look forward to launching more innovative products with ETF Securities soon.”

Kanish Chugh, Head of Distribution at ETF Securities, comments: “We are delighted to have partnered with Solactive to bring to market the ETFS Semiconductor ETF. At ETF Securities we have a focus on identifying and developing products that enable our clients to benefit from rapid technological advances across the globe. Observing the rise in prominence of the semiconductor across a vast array of industries from gaming to automobiles, this product addresses a gap in the Australian market for investors wanting exposure to this growing sector.”

Tata Consultancy Services’ SaaS Offering to Help the Leading South African Insurer Process Claims Faster, Offer Personalized Customer Experiences, and Drive Product Innovation

Tata Consultancy Services, a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, announced that Standard Bank’s short-term insurance business in South Africa has selected TCS BaNCS™ Cloud for Insurance to power its digital claims transformation and reaffirm its leadership in the region.

TCS BaNCS Cloud for Insurance will be offered on a SaaS model on AWS Cloud and will help the insurer harmonize more than 60 products spread across four claims administration platforms, enabling faster and accurate claims processing. The solution will also integrate with 16 different downstream applications including the enterprise GL system, payment gateway, CRM, business intelligence solutions, as well as all other peripheral systems identified in Standard Bank Insurance’s technology roadmap.

Combined with a cloud-first approach, a faster claims processing engine and high configurability, the solution will help Standard Bank Insurance improve operational efficiency and streamline claims management. TCS BaNCS APIs will help Standard Bank Insurance connect to ancillary systems easily and offer personalized experiences to their customers. Additionally, TCS’ analytics and data-driven insights tool will help in decreasing customer churn and speed up decision-making related to claims settlements.

Dr Nolwandle Mqoqi, Head of Insurance, Standard Bank South Africa, said, “Customer satisfaction and loyalty are of utmost importance to us and with TCS BaNCS Cloud for Insurance’s SaaS-based solution, we expect to vastly improve policy holder claims experiences, deliver superior performance in a secure environment and benefit from the scale that a highly configurable solution offers. We have been a leading cloud adopter in the region and selecting TCS BaNCS Cloud as one of the partners is the next step in this journey. Availing TCS’ analytics tool for intelligent insights, we will approach product innovation differently, take advantage of new opportunities and deliver differentiated customer experiences.”

R Vivekanand, Co-Head, TCS Financial Solutions, said, “TCS cherishes the over 20-year relationship with the Standard Bank Group and our long-standing commitment to the South African financial services industry. We are pleased to be selected as the strategic partner to the company for this engagement. TCS BaNCS Cloud for Insurance will help Standard Bank’s short-term insurance enhance customer experience, reduce operational risk, improve claims efficiencies, and take advantage of emerging opportunities by seamlessly collaborating with an extended innovation ecosystem of insurtechs. This claims transformation sets up Standard Bank well for its next leg of thought leadership and client-centered delivery in the South African market.”

TCS BaNCS Cloud for Insurance is an end-to-end rules-driven core insurance platform spanning capabilities in underwriting, customer policy servicing, claim processing, co-insurance, finance, reporting and branch operations across P&C, Health and Life insurance businesses.

This SaaS offering has been adopted by banks and financial institutions of varying sizes across the globe for its future-ready digital architecture, functionality, business agility and operational efficiency. Its proven application architecture ensures anytime, anywhere digital access, scalability, resilience, high performance, and compliance. Cloud agnostic, it ensures that customers gain from a standardized and consistent platform. With a predictable and committed roadmap, systematic regulatory updates, and a complete operational model it provides customers with the reassurance to concentrate on their core competencies rather than on building and maintaining costly IT infrastructure. TCS BaNCS Cloud handles over 100 million transactions per month for more than 220 customers across the world.

Recruitment is once again high on the agenda at Apex Litigation Finance as the company continues to fuel its growth strategy.

The company is continuing its flexible approach to its recruitment activity. Rather than advertise specific job roles, it is keen to hear from anyone who is excited about the company’s growth and direction, whether they have experience in litigation funding, artificial intelligence (AI), business development or fund management, or have a broader litigation background.

Apex CEO Maurice Power says: “We are recruiting across the company, including to develop further our AI and predictive analysis capabilities. It’s our use of these disciplines that enables us to predict case outcomes, settlements, and timelines, but we aren’t standing still. We’ll continue to lead the way in developing and using innovative tools to bring even more sophistication to prediction and analysis.

“The company is still less than two years old, but we have already achieved significant growth in case numbers. There’s a high demand for the funding of small/mid-size claims, which provides access to justice for many who are unable to pursue this through their own means. This demand, along with our use of AI to inform risk assessment, has seen us become one of the highest volume providers of non-recourse litigation funding in the UK.”

Apex also continues to invite additional investors to support its growing pipeline of applications for litigation funding. It recently began marketing a £50m investor fund, providing opportunities as an attractive alternative to equity or fixed income investments.

Interested parties are encouraged to email Apex via enquiries@apexlitigationfinance.com to express an interest in recruitment or investment opportunities.

Colt launches unique proposition that provides comprehensive market data coverage for exchanges in Mainland China via Hong Kong

Colt Technology Services today announced the expansion of its portfolio of Market Data services to incorporate Mainland China. This new and unique proposition, available in Europe, North America and Asia, make Colt the only comprehensive provider of market data coverage for stock, futures and commodity exchanges across the country.

From today, customers can access Market Data services, available directly from within Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s (HKEX) colocation facility, for the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE), Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE), China Financial Futures Exchange (CFFEX) and Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange (ZCE). Market Data services for the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE), Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) and Shanghai International Energy Exchange (INE) will be added in Q3 2021.

As a licensed market data provider, Colt offers raw and normalised feeds at consistently low latencies, even during periods of volatility. Different methods of delivery are also available: customers collocated at the market venues themselves can consume data feeds directly;  away consumption is also available through Colt’s extensive global network and Colt PrizmNet financial extranet with deterministic latency and resilience built-in. Both guarantee efficient and reliable market data delivery.

Moreover, Colt offers a software-normalised format using a standard API that eliminates potential speed loss that arises when normalising and distributing at the source. Customers can also monitor the bandwidth utilisation (at 1s, 10ms and 1ms granularity), message rates, dropped packets, and A/B Feed latency deltas (microseconds) of its raw and normalised market data feeds through Colt’s proprietary web portal.

“Colt’s stable, reliable and low latency connectivity has been trusted and certified by its financial customers for over 20 years.” says Masato Hoshino, Head of Asia and Representative Director & President at Colt. “The ability to subscribe to these exchange data feeds in a secure, fast and reliable manner is critical to their trading needs. We will continue to expand our Market Data coverage and low latency network, and invest in our software development, to provide more agile, flexible and secure services to our customers.”

 Seed Group, a company of the Private Office of Sheikh Saeed bin Ahmed Al Maktoum, has entered into a strategic partnership with Signzy, a Bangalore-based banking workflow automation company, for financial services, to give further push to digital transformation of businesses across the UAE. With the support of Seed Group, Signzy aims to triple its growth in the region by the end of fiscal 2022.

The partnership comes at a time when the UAE is expediting tech transformation across government services and industries, as per the goals of the UAE Digital Government Strategy 2025.

Under the partnership, Seed Group will help Signzy expand its operations in the Emirates and the wider Middle East, reach the right audience, access top decision-makers in government as well as private sectors, and market their products effectively in the region. The AI startup, on the other hand, will bring the best products and technologies to the region and help companies automate their back office operations, create security and data protection infrastructure and speed up digitisation of their processes.

Hisham Al Gurg, CEO of Seed Group and The Private Office of Sheikh Saeed bin Ahmed Al Maktoum, said, “The UAE is taking giant strides to meet the objectives of the UAE Digital Government Strategy 2025 and double the size of the digital economy in the next 10 years. Businesses are going through a phenomenal digital transformation and are on a lookout to adopt affordable smart technologies.”

“Having Signzy as our strategic partner will give the country’s digitisation agenda the much-needed push. Signzy has been successfully providing to various institutions cutting-edge digital solutions. We see a huge potential for their services in the UAE and the Middle East,” he added.

Signzy Co-founder and CEO Ankit Ratan said, “Seed Group brings a wealth of experience and regional access to the MENA region which will power us to rapidly grow market share. Businesses, especially banks, financial institutions, and fintechs across UAE and Middle East are doubling efforts to digitize and automate services to build a robust digital financial infrastructure that improves access, transparency, and speed of delivery. We are pleased to partner with Seed Group to fulfil UAE’s vision of digital transformation.”

Signzy, a company that works with over 100 financial institutions, including the four largest banks in India and the top three banks in the US, and various other businesses, seeks to help financial institutions automate their back-office operations, create security and data protection infrastructure, and speed up digitisation for faster customer onboarding and real-time verification and fraud detection. With over 240 fintech API pre-integrated on the platform, Signzy assists banks become digital ready from day one and expedite customers’ digital journey.

Seed Group is a notable force in the technology, healthcare, hospitality, and telecommunications landscape in the Middle East. Over the past 16 years, it has formed successful strategic alliances with leading global companies representing diverse regions to accelerate their sustainable market entry and presence within the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

The Forex broker OctaFX presents the test launch of its Apple iOS trading app in the Malaysian App Store. A complete app inauguration for all service regions will follow towards the end of 2021.