ETFs are increasingly becoming the incumbent in the global passive investment industry. In June 2021, global assets under management in index-tracking ETFs hit their new record of USD  8.66tn, which is merelyUSD 132bn short of assets in passive mutual funds. Building on the success of ETFs,  CI Global Asset Management, a subsidiary of Toronto-based CI Financial Corp. (TSX: CIX, NYSE: CIXX), has  licensed four Solactive indices to provide its clients three plain vanilla benchmark ETFs, including a broad  Canada ETF, and two ETFs tracking the largest 500 and 1000 US companies, respectively. Furthermore, to  allow investors to participate in the performance of global healthcare companies, CI Global Asset  Management released an ETF tracking the leaders in global healthcare innovation.  

The COVID-19 pandemic required businesses to innovate on short notice, catalyzing business transformations  in the entire global healthcare ecosystem. These challenges created new opportunities for healthcare  companies, which, in return, utilized the growing awareness of healthcare and personalized medicine to push  innovation in healthcare solutions further. CI Global Asset Management’s CI Global Healthcare Leaders  Index ETF (CHCL.B) utilizes the Solactive Developed Markets Healthcare 150 CAD Index as its underlying index. The index includes securities of global large and mid-capitalization issuers from developed countries  that are related to healthcare. For index inclusion, companies must be part of either the Solactive GBS  Developed Markets Large & Mid Cap USD Index or the Solactive GBS Developed Markets Small Cap USD  Index. A common industry classification selects potential constituents via their affiliation of the following  industries: Medical Distributors, Managed Health Care, Hospital/Nursing Management, Medical/Nursing  Services, Services to the Health Industry, Pharmaceuticals: Major, Pharmaceuticals: Other, Pharmaceuticals:  Generic, Biotechnology, Medical Specialties, and Drugstore Chains. Additionally, Securities in the index  universe are sorted by Free Float Market Capitalization in descending order. 

Furthermore, Solactive’s Global Benchmark Series serves as the foundation of both the CI U.S. 1000 Index ETF (CUSM.B) and CI U.S. 500 Index ETF (CUSA.B). These ETFs track, respectively, the largest 500 and 1,000  companies listed on US exchanges. These indices utilized as the ETFs’ respective underlying are the Solactive  GBS United States 500 CAD Index and Solactive GBS United States 1000 CAD Index. Eligible index constituents must be common stocks, REITs, tracking stocks or units and traded in the US. 

NatWest have teamed up with Spotify and Vayner Media to present the UK’s first completely carbon neutral podcast series, which launches today. Green Business Builders, hosted by Paralympian and broadcaster Ade Adepitan, gives listeners on all major platforms the opportunity to hear from climate champions from across the UK business community, in turn helping individuals and businesses make meaningful and long-term changes to their impact on the environment.

As a principal banking sponsor for the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow in November, NatWest also aims to use the new four-part series to demystify sustainable business practices, encouraging the UK’s 5 million strong business community to become Net Zero.

Businesses from across the UK landscape will share their story and challenges in each 25 minute episode, ranging from disruptive and distinctive UK entrepreneurs such as Green Tomato Cars, Beeswax Wrap Company and Too Good To Go; to large multinationals aiming to transform their operations for the better, such as BT, advertising giant WPP, and Coutts, who were recently appointed a B-Corp business.

Together, NatWest and the Swedish-born streaming platform Spotify have ensured that the series is entirely carbon neutral, offsetting carbon emissions generated by the production and streaming of the podcast. It’s believed that this is the first production of its kind in the UK, and will offset 480 tonnes of CO2 output. The initiative forms part of Spotify Advertising’s sustainable audio offering ‘Sustainable Sonics’ - utilising carbon offsets to zero-out the environmental impact of a brand’s audio advertising on Spotify. NatWest and Spotify will be working with Forest Carbon to support reforestation projects across the UK.

Solange Chamberlain, COO, Commercial Banking and Executive Climate Sponsor, NatWest Group said:

“We are very excited to be launching this new series and are thrilled that such an inspiring variety of business leaders took the time to speak to Ade about their experiences in this undoubtedly challenging space. Becoming a more climate responsible citizen or business is an imperative, and it is now about how quickly we can work together to make the changes that matter. 

As a leading bank in the UK helping to address the climate challenge, it’s crucial that businesses have the information they need to help them make decisions that are good for them and for the planet, and that they feel empowered and ready to take action. We look forward to hearing about where the fantastic businesses featured in this series have inspired the wider community to go greener.”

Clare Beddow, Spotify UK/IE, Director of Sales, said:

“Action on climate change is imperative, and we’re committed to tackling it, together with the brands we work with. Audio advertising is already the greenest advertising format, and we can make it even greener together with carbon offsetting. That’s why we launched Sustainable Sonics, utilising carbon offsets to zero-out the environmental impact of a brand’s audio advertising on Spotify and making it even easier for brands to further their environmental commitments with us.”

The Green Business Builders podcast series is the latest public initiative from the bank to help its customers embrace sustainable practices. In March, the bank announced it had launched its Green Accelerator initiative, reserving 25% of all spaces on its UK wide Entrepreneur Accelerator programme for businesses whose core practices are related to sustainability. At the end of July, NatWest Group surpassed its climate and sustainable funding target of £9.5billion, achieving its 2020-2021 target of £20billion in total, six months early.

NatWest’s Green Business Builders was produced with Vayner Media, will run for four episodes from 9 August until 30 August, and is available on Spotify and all major podcast platforms from today.

The fintech conference will feature more than 90 global thought leaders and showcase product demos from more than 50 companies

FinovateFall returns to New York’s Marriott Marquis Times Square Hotel on Sept. 13-15, 2021. Following a year of remote events, Finovate’s conference series will present attendees with an invaluable opportunity to reconnect face-to-face with the fintech community and plot a course for the future. A digital-only access option will continue to be available for attendees seeking to join the conference on a virtual basis.

While 2020 may be behind us, the impact of the pandemic and its fallout have forever altered the financial sphere and the technology that supports it. At FinovateFall, attendees will be able to witness the fintech industry’s response to the changes in the global economy, along with the innovations in customer experience, regtech, insurtech, proptech, healthtech, wealthtech, security, identity, biometrics, blockchain, crypto, investment, onboarding, open banking, digital banking, lending, payments and more.

This year’s event will feature more than 90 expert speakers, who will participate in a series of enlightening roundtable discussions addressing some of the most pertinent topics in today’s fintech universe. Topics will include, “The Synergistic Intersection of Community Banks, Fintechs and SMEs”; “How Financial Services Companies Can Play a Key Role Helping Clients on their ESG & Climate Change Journeys”; “What Next for Neobanks?”; and “Combating Financial Crime,” among various others.

Furthermore, the conference will also feature over 50 carefully selected companies that will showcase their latest financial services technology via product demos, seeking to present the latest in fintech solutions to a live audience in real-time.

However, and in times of unprecedented change, making new connections is vital. In addition to the various keynote addresses, investor roundtables and new product demonstrations, the FinovateFall conference’s unique high-impact networking sessions provide attendees with the chance to easily connect with an impressive group of more than 1,000 senior decision-makers – with over half hailing from major financial institutions. With Finovate’s smart matchmaking tool making it easier than ever to search, find and engage with the people who can move the business forward, conference delegates will be able to engage in the manner that best suits them.

The FinovateFall event will also continue the newest addition to Finovate’s conference series, the Startup Booster program. Designed to support startup founders and employees and in recognition of the many roles held by them, FinovateFall will provide qualifying attendees with discounted entry and unlimited networking opportunities, in a bid to help emerging companies embark on the next stage of their corporate journey.

To register, stay up to date on the expanding speaker list and acquire additional information, visit https://www.nnw.fm/FinovateFall2021.

Stax’s software now provides credit card surcharge option for card-present and card-not-present transactions

Stax by Fattmerchant, the industry's only complete all-in-one solution for managing everything in the payments ecosystem, announces the addition of credit card surcharging to its already feature-rich technology. With prices of processing fees continuing to rise, it is more critical than ever for companies to consider additional ways to cut down on the costs associated with the growing need to accept every payment type.

“The credit card surcharging landscape can be difficult to navigate for both software and brick-and-mortar businesses,” said Suneera Madhani, founder and CEO of Stax. “Our surcharge capability provides a transparent, compliant, and easily enabled solution as businesses look for answers to the increased processing fees brought on by major credit card companies.”

Stax’s surcharge capabilities provide merchants with the ability to process credit cards at a reduced cost to themselves. Instead, the credit card processing fees are passed directly to the customer at the time of payment, allowing merchants greater flexibility in how customers can pay based on their preferences. 

Stax’s all-in-one platform simplifies the entire surcharging experience while allowing merchants to have quick access to the information they need to maintain compliance and increase business performance. This feature includes automated credit card type detection, data and reporting dashboard, transparency for customers, 100% compliance, dedicated support from the Stax team of experts, and top-level security. 

Stax Connect:

• Stax Connect is a fully managed payments facilitation ecosystem that allows independent software vendors (ISVs) to monetize and own the payments experience while transforming their platform’s infrastructure capabilities. Stax’s award-winning team of integration experts can seamlessly enable surcharging capabilities through the Stax Connect API, which gives the ISV’s users the ability to eliminate the need to pay fees from processing credit card payments and increase revenue by cutting costs. “Our APIs have been designed with ease of implementation in mind to handle card detection and surcharge calculation all while keeping you and your merchants out of PCI compliance scope,” said Steven Madow, Head of Partner Product at Stax.

Stax Pay:

• Stax’s small-to-medium-sized businesses who already use Stax Pay will be able to implement surcharging to expand the forms of payment they accept by reducing credit card processing fees. They can increase profit by cutting costs with the use of the Stax API. The new capability adds to the feature-rich technology, including invoicing, swiped payments, mobile payments, keyed payments, and more, all displayed on one easy-to-navigate dashboard. 

For more information on Stax and how its surcharge capabilities can help businesses compete , please visit staxpayments.com.

his increased functionality enhances the API set already supporting Interac e-Transfer Request Money for Fintechs and Paytechs.

Peoples Payment Solutions Ltd., part of Peoples Group, continues to bring increased capabilities to the payments realm, with the announcement of the new Interac e-Transfer® for Business, and its participation in the market launch. This enhanced Interac e-Transfer feature enables real-time digital payments for commercial transactions. Focused on providing digital money movement to businesses, Peoples has added API access for Interac Auto-deposit and Interac Send e-Transfers, both in its classic form and via the newly launched Interac e-Transfer for Business service. These services complement the API toolkit that already supports Request Money and will enable Fintechs and Paytechs to increase their financial service offerings to Canadians.

The suite of Interac e-Transfer for Business features virtually eliminates delay in moving money digitally, provides immediate receipt confirmation to the sender, and accommodates the inclusion of additional payment information (such as invoice details). Real-time transfers are initiated using a recipient's bank account number (generally available in a business client relationship), and funds are received within seconds. The addition of account number routing to Peoples Payments’ product line provides more options for clients to move money digitally. These can be related to speed, data requirements and the amount of information needed to initiate Interac e-Transfer transactions. Fintechs and Paytechs can now access these additional options via API as they continue to innovate their financial services offerings to Canadian consumers and businesses.

“We’re excited to be a leader in bringing this latest new payment option to market and continuing in our promise to facilitate innovation of money movement.” said Howard Klein, President of Peoples Payments and Cards, part of Peoples Group.

Digital Employee Experience management company mentioned as a Sample Vendor for DEX solutions and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure monitoring.

ControlUp, the industry leader in digital employee experience management, announced today that it has been recognized as a Sample Vendor for Digital Employee Experience management (DEX) category in three separate Gartner Hype Cycle reports, including Hype Cycle for the Digital Workplace, 2021[1], Hype Cycle for Digital Workplace Infrastructure and Operations, 2021[2], Hype Cycle for ITSM, 2021 [3], In another  Gartner report, titled “Hype Cycle for Monitoring, Observability and Cloud Operations, 2021” [4], ControlUp was recognized in both Digital Employee Experience management (DEX) category and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDIM) category.

ControlUp had record-breaking performance in H1 2021, expanding its market base with 400,000+ new licenses for remote working solutions that are essential to the hybrid workforce.  The ControlUp Digital Employee Experience management platform enables IT administrators to see their remote work landscape, end to end, from a single console, ensuring that employees have a superior digital experience, no matter where they work.

According to Gartner, “Despite significant digital workplace investments, most IT leaders are unable to measure digital employee experience. While digital experience monitoring (DEM) is important, most DEM tools lack organizational context and sentiment data, as well as automation capabilities. These additional features enable DEX tools to become a strategic differentiator that can reduce overhead and improve experience, which is paramount given the increased pressure organizations are under as the result of the pandemic.”[4]

“The new online economy has created a huge demand for solutions that optimize the employee digital experience”, said Alexander Rublowsky, Executive Vice President of Marketing at ControlUp.  “We believe that this recognition in the 2021 Gartner Hype Cycle reports have affirmed our solutions’ ability to improve employee productivity and satisfaction by ensuring seamless access, high availability, and quick response times for applications used remotely.”

_{[1]Gartner “Hype Cycle for the Digital Workplace, 2021,” Matt Cain, Michael Woodbridge, July 12, 2021. (Gartner subscription required)}

_{[2]Gartner “Hype Cycle for Digital Workplace Infrastructure and Operations, 2021,” Autumn Stanish, Stuart Downes, July 22, 2021. (Gartner subscription required)}

_{[3]Gartner “Hype Cycle for ITSM, 2021,” Siddharth Shetty, Keith Andes, July 21, 2021. (Gartner subscription required)}

_{[4] Gartner “Hype Cycle for Monitoring, Observability and Cloud Operations, 2021,” Padraig Byrne, Pankaj Prasad, July 16, 2021. (Gartner subscription required)}

Žltý melón, a Slovak P2P lending platform, joined forces with Salt Edge, leader in developing open banking solutions, to implement PSD2-integrated access to clients’ bank data and streamline the loan application journey.

Current uncertain market conditions created an urgency for instant and simplified alternatives to bank loans. P2P lending, also called crowdlending, became a real lifeline, offering borrowings directly from individuals who are ready to lend. Žltý melón works as the connecting link between people who need to borrow money with those who want to invest. Žltý melón offers people lower loan interest rates and higher returns on their investments, making consumer and mortgage loans more accessible and investing more profitable than with traditional banks.

Joining forces with Salt Edge, Žltý melón gets instant access to more than 2,500 banks across Europe, including major Slovak and Czech banks, thus making the loan application flow for their clients more streamlined and frictionless. Open banking adds a digital boost to the risk verification process, which was previously burdened by the need to download the PDF file from internet banking and then upload those files to the Žltý melón system. Now, clients need simply to provide their consent and bank data will be transferred instantly in the automatic mode.

Driven by Salt Edge’s data aggregation and data enrichment solutions, Žltý melón will be able to run enhanced data analytics and automate additional parts of the verification and risk analytics process. By getting a 360-degree view of a borrowers’ financial situation and behaviour, Žltý melón can offer to the clients additional discounts on interest rates for their loan.

Žltý melón as a leading fintech lending platform in Slovakia has won the trust of thousands of satisfied investors over the time of almost ten years of our operations and for us, it was very important to collaborate with trusted partners. Salt Edge’s readiness and quality of product solutions, experience, and market coverage became decisive in our choice. Collaborating with Salt Edge, we can streamline the loan request process for our clients and enhance our credit scoring algorithm, thus providing the possibility to more people to get additional funding for even better conditions.

Roman Feranec, CEO of Žltý melón

Open banking brings to light countless opportunities for the lending industry. And we are very excited to see the fruits and benefits of lenders incorporating Instant access to bank data to their products, being able to offer services to more customers. We are excited to team up with Žltý melón, a project supported by strong investment groups and portfolios in its background with intuitive and clear services without hidden fees. We are proud to contribute to the ever-increasing number of satisfied Žltý melón customers and businesses discovering more and more open banking-enabled benefits.

Lisa Gutu, Head of Business Development at Salt Edge

The digital bank which recently raised £17.7M, will focus on delivering an exceptional and secure banking experience, built on its innovative social current account and competitive lending products.

Digital bank Kroo has received its banking licence and is now authorised with restrictions by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), marking the company’s entrance into the final stage of the UK financial regulators’ rigorous licensing application process.

The bar to obtaining a UK banking licence is high, with a massive gap between the number of firms interested in becoming a bank and those that subsequently gain authorisation. Kroo is one of only two new banks to be authorised in 2021 so far. The regulators’ demanding application process involves submitting a regulatory business plan alongside a number of policies and key documents, capital and liquidity assessments approval, and attending in-depth feedback “challenge sessions”.

The authorisation with restriction means that Kroo can accept deposits up to £50,000 in total. This ‘mobilisation’ phase allows new banks a time to finalise their systems, infrastructure and controls ahead of public launch, which for Kroo is expected in early 2022, once the full banking licence is granted.

Kroo aims to remove the friction from financial interactions with family and friends, by reducing the social anxiety and stigma surrounding money management. The digital bank’s current product range - a prepaid debit card and its innovative app - enable customers to easily create groups with friends, track spending, and split and pay bills quickly and securely. The Kroo prepaid card is an e-money product, with funds protected by safeguarding rules, but not by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Once the restrictions are lifted in early 2022, Kroo will gradually close down the prepaid card scheme and offer its customers the ability to transition their existing accounts over to the new Kroo current account, free of charge.

As part of its product expansion, the bank will offer loans later in 2022 to provide access to fair and competitively priced credit. The digital bank will also grow its workforce significantly, across technology, marketing, risk, compliance and customer support.

To support the delivery of this phase, Kroo has assembled a new board of directors, including financial services veteran Cameron Marr as chair, corporate governance and financial control specialist Penelope Kenny as senior independent director, the seasoned tech entrepreneur Rudy Karsan as representative of the shareholders and risk and compliance expert Serena Joseph to lead its risk committee.

The newly formed board will join Kroo’s experienced leadership team, who have held senior roles in Santander, RBS, KPMG, Bank of Cyprus and Ratesetter.

Andrea De Gottardo, CEO of Kroo, says “It is incredibly exciting to finally be a bank that is authorised with restrictions. Very few firms in the UK get to this point and this represents a huge milestone for the entire team. We’ve worked hard over the years to build a bank our customers will not only love but can rely on and trust. Entering mobilisation brings us one giant step closer to becoming the greatest social bank on the planet.”

To date, Kroo has grown organically to 5,000 prepaid cardholders, with over 20,000 monthly transactions on the platform. The firm also launched a customer tree-planting referral scheme in June 2021, has a board-level social conscience committee and has pledged to donate a percentage of its profits to social causes. Kroo has now raised over £30m in venture capital funding since launch, having recently secured a £17.7m Series A investment.

Latin American grocery delivery platform Cornershop will issue recycled plastic cards through Marqeta’s modern card issuing platform, with Marqeta also partnering with rePurpose Global on plastic neutrality initiatives.

Marqeta, the global modern card issuing platform, announced a new initiative today to offer customers the choice to issue physical cards made from recycled plastic through its platform, alongside a partnership with rePurpose Global to offset its plastic footprint.

Marqeta will let its customers order physical cards made from 43 percent recycled material, offered in partnership with its card fulfillment partner Perfect Plastic Printing. Latin American grocery delivery platform Cornershop, recently acquired by Uber, will be the first customer to issue recycled cards through Marqeta to new Cornershop delivery shoppers globally. 

“We applaud Marqeta for taking the initiative with this new recycled card product, and for reducing the environmental impact of plastic cards,” said Oskar Hjertonsson, Founder and CEO of Cornershop by Uber. “It offered us an opportunity to be environmentally conscious, without sacrificing the quality and durability of the cards used by Cornershop delivery shoppers, which is a true win-win.” 

This new product is part of a continued focus on plastic neutrality for Marqeta, with the company also entering into a partnership with rePurpose Global to reduce its plastic footprint. Marqeta has committed to work with rePurpose Global to remove 380,000 pounds of nature-bound plastic from the environment in 2021 and channel it towards sustainable reuse. rePurpose Global’s efforts on Marqeta’s behalf will offset the creation of roughly 34 million cards. It is estimated that 37 metric tons of plastic enters our oceans each year, with 74 percent of plastic never recycled. Even if the world’s governments meet the ambitious commitments they have set for themselves, annual plastic emissions could reach 58 million tons by 2030.

“Marqeta is excited to be able to offer recycled cards to our customers like Cornershop, and to partner with a social enterprise like rePurpose to reduce the environmental impact of the plastic cards we issue,” said Jason Gardner, Founder and CEO of Marqeta. “This is a key step for Marqeta toward our eventual goal of plastic neutrality. It’s crucial that as a company we take it upon ourselves to be positive stewards of the environment, and by helping our customers reduce their plastic footprint, we also reduce our own.”