Timberland Investment Resources Europe LLP (TIR) has closed its second Forestry Fund II, successfully meeting its target of $200m of committed capital.

The success of the fund is in part linked to timberland as an asset class receiving increased interest from pension schemes and investors. Timberland has the ability to provide stable returns, and a diversified portfolio, along with being an inflationary hedge.

Demand for sustainable investment alternatives continues to escalate in the institutional investment sector and for pension schemes as part of their wider commitments to climate change and sustainability. Timberland is increasingly being viewed as a great alternative investment for environmental, social and governance (ESG) purposes.

Timberland Investment Resources Europe (TIR Europe) has seen demand for its timberland sustainable investments increasing over the past year. As at 31 March 2021 TIR group as a whole had assets under management of $1.65bn comprising of 835,961 acres of forest across the U.S.

Hugh Humfrey, Partner, TIR Europe commented: “We are proud to deliver both financial and social returns to investors. We are seeing a huge rise in the number of institutions and pension schemes looking at ESG alternatives for their portfolios that deliver consistent returns. At TIR we practice sustainable forestry on all of the forest assets we manage for investors and we will continue to pursue the highest environmental stewardship and expertise in managing the forests.”

GianPaolo Potsios, Partner, TIR Europe added “TIR can offer institutional investors access to a solid asset class that offers good returns . Real assets such as timberland have a compelling role to play in an investor’s portfolio offering regular dividends as well as a solid source of alternative yield.”

Timberland as an investment is likely to see increased interest following initiatives such as climate change mitigation, a universal consideration of the SFI standard1, which acknowledges the impact on the use of sustainable forestry practices can have on the capacity of working forests to sequester carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions.

Separately with climate-related reporting now mandatory for premium-listed companies in the UK, as of January 2021, many businesses are seeking to offset their carbon footprints by planting trees and forests and purchasing carbon credits.

TIR Europe expects the trend to grow following the UN's Principles for Responsible Investment forecast that corporate demand for carbon removal and offsetting could USD800 billion annually for investors by mid-century.

Timberland Investment Resources tracks forest carbon storage levels by property based on timber stocking data and projected biological growth rates. This information is rolled up and reported on a portfolio basis to clients each quarter. TIR is seeing an increase in the role of carbon sequestration in forests

Volumes decreased -13.7% month-on-month and increased +17.6% year-on-year.

Integral (www.integral.com), a leading technology company in the foreign exchange market, reported today average daily volumes (ADV) across Integral platforms totaled $44 billion in July 2021. This represents a decrease of -13.7% compared to June 2021 and an increase of +17.6% compared to the same period in 2020.

Reported ADV represents volumes traded across the group’s entire liquidity network, including TrueFXTM and Integral OCXTM, in aggregate.

Integral’s global trading network has been designed to meet the execution needs of the widest variety of FX market participants, including banks, brokers, asset managers, and hedge funds. Our clients leverage the deep and diverse FX liquidity available through our platforms and have the choice to trade any execution style required, all within an integrated environment. 

Capital markets fintech Nivaura has appointed Scott Eaton as its new Chief Executive Officer.  Eaton brings three decades of experience in leadership roles in capital markets and financial technology.  Most recently he served as CEO of Algomi from 2018 until its sale to BGC in 2020 and prior to that as Chief Operating Officer of MarketAxess Europe from 2015-2018.

Nivaura’s founder Avtar Sehra moves to the role of President, and will be focused on guiding the teams on intensifying its innovation and product development in capital markets automation technology, following significant new partnerships and business wins in the last six months.

Sehra commented: “The board and I are thrilled that Scott Eaton is joining us.  Nivaura has made a substantial leap forward this year, with our groundbreaking projects with LSEG and  DBS Bank.  As we exploit our growth opportunities to the full, I will be concentrating on accelerating innovation and our product roadmap, while Scott takes the lead on running the day to day business and equipping us to scale up quickly.  Scott’s background in bond markets, and in commercialising innovative solutions that align with the grain of market structure, make him precisely the right person to join us on this next phase of our journey.”

Scott Eaton added: “Since creating the first DLT solution for bond issuance back in 2016, Nivaura has built up a strong reputation in capital markets, from law firms to debt syndicate teams, exchanges and industry bodies. The Nivaura team are true innovators, and they will continue furthering Nivaura’s track record of usable, cutting edge innovation in capital markets; which will be accelerated as Avtar now takes on this focused role.  I look forward to working with him, the management team and the board to grow Nivaura internationally.  As a former bond trader, I know how attractive the type of digitisation and automation that Nivaura can bring to primary markets will be to many banks, exchanges, and investors.”

Recently, Nivaura’s technology was deployed by DBS Bank of Singapore for the world’s first automated digital bond issuance platform.  The firm’s technology also underpins London Stock Exchange Group’s Flow, a multi-dealer EMTN SaaS marketplace that went live earlier this year and was utilised in LSEG’s multi-tranche $7bn MTN issuance.  Nivaura also pioneered General-purpose Legal Mark-up Language (GLML), a human-readable mark-up language in conjunction with a number of global law firms and infrastructure service providers. Nivaura has now transferred its GLML intellectual property to the newly-launched GLML Foundation, a not-for-profit body that will promote GLML as an open data standard for capital markets.

Founded in 2016, Nivaura is privately held by Avtar Sehra and the management team, together with key outside investors including the London Stock Exchange Group and Digital Currency Group.

Colt brings enterprise sites even closer to the Cloud, covering almost all major public cloud PoPs in Europe and Asia

Colt Technology Services, a leading provider of agile, high bandwidth connectivity solutions, has today announced that it is now interconnected at over 200 public Cloud on-ramp locations globally, covering the vast majority of the major public Cloud Points of Presence (PoPs) market in Europe and Asia.

Colt continues expanding its Cloud on-ramps, connecting to Oracle Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud and Microsoft’s Azure Cloud. The most recent addition of a new interconnect to the Oracle Cloud in Newport, Wales, means Colt is more connected to the Cloud than most of the global providers in Europe and Asia.

Exceeding 200 on-ramps makes Colt a leading cloud incumbent in Europe and Asia. It means the connectivity provider can bring enterprise sites even closer to the Cloud for the lowest latency possible. Colt’s extensive coverage of cloud PoPs also allows it to offer customers significant cloud PoP diversity options and fully resilient connectivity in one country or cloud region. 

Cloud migration is a key driver defining enterprise IT strategies, and the last 12 months have seen a surge in cloud migration, driven by COVID-19. New research from Colt found that enterprises are engaging with a new era of Cloud possibilities and embracing a whole new generation of Cloud-centric compute and connectivity. Technology evolution as a key enabler of enterprise digital transformation plans.

Colt’s Cloud connectivity solutions are based on its intelligent Colt IQ Network, which comprises 29,000 on net buildings and over 900 data centres. Colt’s fully-owned and operated dense fibre network allows enterprises to benefit from an end-to-end, seamless and highly scalable connection to the Cloud. 

Since the launch of Colt Dedicated Cloud Access (DCA) portfolio, which is underpinned by the intelligent Colt IQ Network, Colt has delivered thousands of customer connections towards the Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) through its DCA products, including Cloud On Demand, DCA Ethernet, IPVPN, SD WAN multi-cloud, and PrizmNet product offerings. 

Keri Gilder, Colt’s CEO, comments: “Many years ago, at the start of the rise of cloud, Colt made its first interconnect with AWS Cloud. Today, with over 200 public Cloud on-ramps – more than most providers in Europe and Asia – we’ve become a global cloud incumbent for connectivity.

“At Colt, we know there is a direct correlation between the success of cloud migration projects and connectivity. We’re committed to serving enterprise cloud requirements with our flexible, high bandwidth and low latency network. This landmark is an example of that and our determination to become the network platform underpinning enterprise cloud transitions.”

New global receivables finance report shows impact of Covid-19 on fraud across Europe and US

EQ Riskfactor, the risk management specialist and part of EQ (Equiniti plc), today launches volume 2 of its global outlook report series – “Technology – the route to resilience”.

The report surveyed senior decision makers from the receivables finance industry across the UK, US, Germany, France and the Netherlands on the impact of Covid-19, and how technology is helping tackle the challenges of fraud. 

Significantly, 60% of UK industry respondents stated that business failure had decreased between 2019 and 2020 – the greatest decline of all countries surveyed.  In dramatic contrast, the US recorded the biggest increase in business failure at 59%.  Industry commentators suspect the UK’s outperformance likely reflects levels of government support masking the financial pressures of many businesses. 

Similarly, respondents reported that fraud plummeted by 68% in the UK through 2020 – an improvement of approximately a third (29%) on the rest of the world, where fraud decreased by an average of 39%. Most respondents across European countries also reported a decrease in fraud, though the trend reversed in the US with fraudulent activity rising by 63%. 

Other key findings from the report include:

-       Fraud decreased across Europe, with exception of the Netherlands where it increased by 40%

-       Lenders remain optimistic as clear signs of economic recovery continue to emerge

-       Investing in technology will be the driving force for future resilience

Michael Ellis, managing director of EQ Riskfactor, comments:

“It is worrying that globally, a third of respondents saw fraud increase compared to the previous year. This makes it all the more vital for lenders to use technology to mitigate risk and prevent fraud, supported by highly trained teams.

“While there are positive signs of declining business failure and fraud in the UK, the speedy roll-out of government stimuli such as furlough extended a lifeline to many so-called “zombie” businesses that may mean when this support is withdrawn, we’ll see a harsher picture of the real financial impact on these businesses.

“Receivables finance is the perfect vehicle to support ongoing economic recovery, as businesses unlock working capital for their growth. This need for capital, coupled with government support coming to an end, creates ideal conditions for increased fraud – and unsurprisingly, our report clearly shows this to be a growing threat.”

Lloyds Bank has become the first bank in Europe to partner with Visa to offer Straight Through Processing (STP) technology to customers using its commercial charge cards.

Straight-Through Processing (STP) enables a more efficient way to pay invoices while providing the traditional benefits of commercial card payments to both the buyer and the supplier.

With STP, buyers can request to time their payments to maximise the number of days before their statement, giving them more flexibility with their cashflow than would be the case with a bank transfer.

Suppliers benefit by receiving funds directly into their accounts without the need to manually input card details or use card terminals.

STP also makes it easier for suppliers to identify the source of inbound payments thanks to the rich remittance data.

James Sykes, Head of Commercial Cards at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, said: “Partnering with Visa to add STP technology to our commercial cards is a direct result of us acting on a payments pain point for our clients.

“STP turns the traditional supplier-initiated payments model on its head. It makes conversations around card payments easier, provides more control and insight over the transaction and can help buyers and sellers improve their working capital.”

Helen Jones, Executive Director, Visa Business Solutions at Visa, added: “Commercial cards are a secure, reliable and convenient way for businesses to pay. STP will help make the experience of paying invoices easier and more streamlined for both suppliers and buyers. We’re delighted to partner with Lloyds Bank to help their customers better manage their cashflow and their supplier relationships at such a critical moment for UK businesses.”

The launch of STP is the latest in a series of payment innovations Lloyds Bank has introduced to support its business customers.

Last year, it became the first bank in the world to go live with Swift gpi Instant, which connects the high-speed Swift gpi cross-border payments rail with real-time domestic infrastructure, in this case the UK’s Faster Payments system.

In 2019, Lloyds Bank also launched its payables API – designed to enable businesses to send faster payments directly from their systems without human intervention – which now processes more than £350m of payments every month. STP will further expand Lloyds Bank’s capabilities for its business customers, automating supplier card acceptance processes together with additional working capital benefits.

The latest version of NAKIVO Backup & Replication provides additional security with Immutable Repository and Two-Factor Authentication to help customers protect their backup data against ransomware.

NAKIVO has released v10.4 of NAKIVO Backup & Replication with a focus on the security of backup data and ransomware protection. The new features include Immutable Repository and Two-Factor Authentication designed to strengthen the security of NAKIVO’s 18,000+ customer base and ensure that their data is recoverable even after a ransomware attack. 

Immutable Repository 

Backups are as vulnerable to ransomware as any other data stored on local storage media if not offline or air-gapped. The new Immutable Repository feature allows making backups sent to a local Linux-based repository immutable and hence ransomware-resilient. The new feature relies on native Linux functionality to ensure ransomware protection. Immutable backup data is protected from corruption and encryption by ransomware but can still be used for recovery. Once set, the immutability of backups cannot be changed by anyone other than a superuser.  

Two-Factor Authentication 

Automated attacks to gain unauthorised access to systems are among the major causes of data breaches. The latest release introduces a simple yet effective measure to protect users against these tactics. The new Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) option improves the security of customers’ backups by requiring an authentication code to access NAKIVO Backup & Replication. By enabling 2FA, access to data protection activities will require a one-time password generated by Google Authenticator. This way, a leaked password is now much less of a threat.  

Instant Granular Recovery for Nutanix AHV 

In Nutanix AHV environments, swift recovery of corrupted or accidentally deleted data in business-critical applications is essential for seamless workflows. Now, customers with Nutanix AHV VMs can instantly recover files and app objects in Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory. Customers can perform recovery to the original or a different VM or export the data to a custom location without recovering the entire VM.  

Feature Availability 

All of the new enhancements can be tried in the 15-day Free Trial, which includes full access to all NAKIVO Backup & Replication features.  

“As cybercriminals come up with more sophisticated attacks, we need to stay ahead of them by making more security features available to our customers. This release aims to help our customers beat ransomware without negotiating with hackers,” says Bruce Talley, CEO of NAKIVO Inc.

Supporting Quote: 

“NAKIVO Backup & Replication is 40% less expensive than our previous product, plus, we spend 30% less time on NAKIVO Backup & Replication when it comes to management. In addition to saving time and money, NAKIVO Backup & Replication guarantees reliable backups, as well as integration with various cloud platforms,” says Silvia Marta, CEO of Siggi Group. 

• Bank introduces female entrepreneur focussed specialists based in communities, in partnership with BEIS and LEP Network
• 28 Local Enterprise managers around the UK have committed support to Local Enterprise Partnerships

NatWest has today launched its Expert in Residence programme across the UK, dedicating 28 roles based in branches and communities to help female entrepreneurs realise their growth ambitions, following a successful two year pilot of the programme in the Solent and South East regions of England. The initiative is launched in conjunction with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The 28 Expert in Residence roles will be based in NatWest branches, in growth hubs and in their wider community, and will be available to host events, provide expert insight and advice on business finance, and support their LEP to access additional expertise to help female-led businesses achieve their potential. These roles will also support with lending and banking services in partnership with specialists from the bank.

Expert in Residence is the latest action taken by the bank following the Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship, which was launched in 2019 and co-authored by NatWest’s CEO Alison Rose. The review demonstrated that up to £250 billion of new value (equivalent to 1 SME million businesses) could be added to the UK economy, if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate as UK men.

The review proposed eight key initiatives that would help change the UKs female business environment for the better, and found that a key enabler is access to local, trusted and relatable expertise. Expert in Residence aims to offer that enabler, as well as providing the improved access to finance that will allow female entrepreneurs to grow their business further. In addition to the Experts in Residence, NatWest also have over 800 Women in Business specialists amongst their frontline teams, accredited by the Chartered Banker Institute and certified by Everywoman. These specialists offer bespoke mentoring, networking and professional business advice to women-led and owned SMEs.

Alison Rose, CEO, NatWest Group said:

“Since the launch of the Rose Review in 2019, strong progress has been made in breaking-down barriers facing female entrepreneurs, with considerable commitment and action across financial services and the wider business landscape. Yet there is more to do and, post-pandemic, support which is practical, face-to-face, and tailored to local communities, will be critical in enabling entrepreneurs to rebuild and thrive.

We are delighted to be working with BEIS and the LEP Network to roll out NatWest’s Expert in Residence programme across the UK, and I encourage businesses to reach out to their local Expert in Residence via their LEP or Growth hub in order to advantage of what they can offer – alongside the wider package of support available.”

Small Business Minister Paul Scully said:

“Dynamic entrepreneurs need dedicated support that matches their energy and expertise, and the Expert in Residence programme provides just that, tailored to women business owners.

“This government is backing entrepreneurship across the UK through programmes including Expert in Residence, the Help to Grow schemes, the Peer Networks programme and Start Up Loans to create jobs, boost growth and help us build back better.”  

Mark Livesey, Chief Executive, LEP Network said:

“We are pleased to be supporting the roll out of the Expert in Residence programme across the country following the success of the pilot programme with Local Enterprise Partnerships.  We are committed to realising the untapped potential of female entrepreneurs across every LEP area in the country. One of the keys to the success of the programme is the role of LEP Growth Hubs in understanding the barriers that prevent women-led businesses from applying for grant funding and reaching out for support. LEPs are uniquely placed to help overcome this and will prove a key driver of its future success.”

Avast Global Risk Report shows businesses in the United Kingdom have a monthly risk ratio of 11% of getting attacked by any type of PC malware

Avast (LSE:AVST), a global leader in digital security and privacy, today revealed that the overall chance of business users encountering a cyber threat has increased worldwide year over year by 24%, from 11.25% to 13.9%. This insight is part of Avast’s latest Global PC Risk Report, looking at PC threats Avast blocked in March and April 2021, and the same timeframe in 2020. The report also shows that in the UK, the likelihood of a business user encountering any type of PC malware is 11%.

“In the pandemic, enabling the staff to work from home at such short notice has posed serious challenges to business security. Not every company was prepared with secure business VPNs and remote access solutions, and cybercriminals have taken advantage of this. We observed an increased abuse of the remote desktop protocol, and specifically have seen ransomware attacks become more prevalent,” commented Michal Salat, Director of Threat Intelligence at Avast. “Overall, the risk ratio of businesses encountering malware attacks has increased worldwide.”

The report also looks into the risk of ‘advanced’ threats hitting businesses. Avast defines more sophisticated or threats never seen before as ‘advanced’ threats, designed to bypass common protection technologies included in security software, such as signatures, heuristics, emulators, URL filtering, and email scanning. For this type of threat, UK business users in the reported timeframe had a 2% risk ratio, and global business users 2.29%.

The Global Scenario

Geographies with more conflictive socio-political situations seem to be facing more risk in the online world as well. Asian countries are among the top countries where businesses are most at risk, followed by Africa and Eastern Europe.

The top 10 countries in which business users are most at risk of encountering threats are:

For all types of threats, the geographies with the lowest risk were the Nordics, Western and Central European countries, in addition to the United States, Latvia and the Dominican Republic. This changes when looking at advanced threats, where the common denominator seems to be the size of the countries with populations smaller than 11 million.

This report provides an overview of cyberattacks that happened within thirty days, giving insight into the general risk users and businesses face globally and in different countries.

·       41% of Brits’ key motivation for investing in crypto is long-term investment and stable return

·       51% would be very interested in taking out a loan by using crypto holdings as a guarantee

·       39% were very likely to use crypto to send money abroad or receive money from outside UK from friends and family

New research commissioned by Coinbase, the global cryptocurrency exchange platform, has found that many Brits are increasingly identifying cryptocurrency as a viable and reliable alternative to traditional financial systems.

Cryptocurrency has traditionally been seen as a speculative, trading investment but a number of other use cases have emerged in recent years, such as the ability to earn a return on investments via staking into certain blockchains, the ability to facilitate lending through decentralised finance, and as a way of conducting faster, cheaper remittance transfers. 25% of Coinbase’s customers currently participate in one of these ‘non-investment’ activities.

Using independent research firm, Qualtrics, Coinbase surveyed over 2000 British adults who have some familiarity with digital currencies in order to gain a deeper understanding of their attitudes towards current and future engagement with cryptocurrency. It found that:

• 41% of Brits saying that their key motivation for investing in crypto was to invest long-term and earn a stable return, 
• Over half of respondents (51%) would be very interested in taking out a loan by using crypto holdings as a guarantee, in place of traditional methods, and 
• 39% of respondents were very likely to use crypto to send money abroad or receive money from outside the UK from friends and family.

This data shows the increasing potential for cryptocurrency to transcend the current global financial system and traverse borders, allowing Brits to become more in tune with their assets and promoting financial inclusion.

Commenting on these findings, Marcus Hughes, Managing Director for Europe at Coinbase said:

“The future of cryptocurrencies is directly linked to their utility and we are therefore hugely encouraged by these findings. We can see that the attitudes of British consumers towards cryptocurrency have transformed significantly in the last few years, with many now considering adopting cryptocurrency as an alternative method to execute traditional banking functions including transactions and loans.” 

“At Coinbase, our mission is to create greater access to the cryptoeconomy through a user-friendly experience that customers can trust. We are honoured to be at the forefront of this shift to an all-inclusive, global financial system. 1.3m people in the UK adult population remain unbanked and we believe cryptocurrency removes barriers for users to access capital in a safe and secure manner.”