For this reason, it has dawn upon Forex experts that preserving true connections with trading mechanisms is an admirable objective internationally, expecially as the business world evolves so rapidly. As such, Finexpo experts are putting out the effective way of maintaining link with the trading transparency – conducting trusted voting virtually. 

Admittedly, the benefits of Forex Awards ranking go beyond their simple prestige and the highest status, thus allowing Forex players to be inspired to practice the far-reaching trading strategies, to find the leading and the reliable companies and working projects inside the international finance community. It is worth mentioning that, apart from 38 nominations being announced by Finexpo event and over 32 countries where this prominent ranking should bring countless merits to Forex trading around the globe and, of course, 14 credible sponsors have been claimed to have a presence there. 

In this sense, the reliability and the reputation of any user or customer are of primary importance. Furthermore, it seems that there is in fact the most powerful way of discovering the notable traders who have been trusted by the real customers when their true and open-dialogue opinions, reviews and so many other kinds of feedback could be handed down between the trading courtships and the business partnerships.

The significance of this worldwide Forex Awards online event will be largely emphasized by Finexpo experts at annual Forex Expo 2021 where the most influential trading nominees are expected to feel the winners for the whole trading inheritance which embodies the last top-notch trading concepts far more effectively than any other finance rating. 

Overall, Finexpo is agreed to recognize and welcome the most transparent and clear companies, brokers and others in helping to maintain the safest investment for a real trading future in the subsequent process:

Step № 1: Any broker, bank or company are obliged to fill in their profile info being a officially registered. 

Step № 2: All the participants may be found in any number of awards positions where they are willing to be. 

Step № 3: Increasing the number of points would appear to be helpful in inviting more people for voting matter. 

Step № 4: Your personal winning success as a final road to receive the Best ever award which is surely a driving force in getting more points. 

• CloudTrade adds plug-and-play data capture solution to its freight invoice platform, offering 100% accuracy for all freight and logistics documents

CloudTrade, the leading provider of e-invoicing, e-order and complex data capture services, today announced the launch of FreightDocs, a bespoke, cloud-based, plug and play data capture solution, tailor-made for processing freight and logistics documents.

Built on CloudTrade’s unique, patented Gramatica technology and guaranteeing 100% accurate data capture; FreightDocs enables touchless processing of all types of freight and logistics documents, including freight invoices, freight bills, bills of lading (BOL’s), statements, goods receipt notes, and consignment notes.

With a network of top global carriers already live, the new solution speeds up onboarding and increases adoption by matching a business’s top transacting carriers to its set of preconfigured models, which can be modified to fit a business’s specific data formatting requirements. Enabling freight auditors, TMS providers, 3PL’s, freight forward operators and payment providers to extract, validate and convert data from hundreds of documents, and upload clean and structured data into their existing transport management software (TMS) system quickly and efficiently.

Heidi Calamusa, VP of Business Development for Freight Management, Inc., says: “My team and I manage and process over 220,000 freight and logistics documents for our customers every year, and FreightDocs plays a key role in our ability to maintain and grow our offer. Not only does CloudTrade’s solution provide us with a touchless, automated solution; but the level of accuracy, across all types of documentation, is without equal. The fact that so many customer / carrier combinations already exist on the network speeds up on-boarding for the entire ecosystem too.”

Roger Hatfield, VP, CloudTrade for Logistics, adds: “FreightDocs delivers unparalleled, automated, data capture accuracy in just a few weeks. Providing operators with greater control and insight over their freight data, which, of course, helps them to control and monitor costs. Our proprietary solution allows on the ground and back-office teams to process documents quickly, and then share that crucial data with their organisation’s existing systems within minutes of receipt.”

FreightDocs builds on CloudTrade for Logistics, a freight invoice platform, which enables carriers to overcome inefficient methods of freight invoice processing and transact digitally with their trading partners, regardless of their size or technical maturity. Launched in 2019, CloudTrade for Logistics was the first solution of its type to enable freight payment providers, third-party logistics (3PLs) and business process outsourcing partners (BPOs) to increase efficiencies, slash operational costs and increase throughput, by eliminating the processing of PDF and paper invoices. 

With the addition of FreightDocs, CloudTrade for Logistics will continue to deliver benefits to both sides of the trading relationship, from cost reduction, to increased control. Improving a business’s ability to pay on time, increasing visibility and transparency within its supply chain. Suppliers can produce their freight invoices in an easy and non-disruptive way. Removing the need for changes to their applications, infrastructure, or internal processes. Unlike traditional EDI, CloudTrade does not require any additional technical resources.

Hatfield continues: “With CloudTrade for Logistics, your invoice data can easily be delivered into your freight payment or back-office system for processing in a file format that meets your needs, quickly and efficiently. Enabling users to send and receive tax and VAT compliant invoices, that are processed at 100% accuracy, at a line level detail and at a fraction of the cost.”

Fixed Income veteran appointed as Strategic Sales Advisor

Paul has worked in Fixed Income sales to financial institutions for over 30 years. Most recently he was Managing Director for Institutional Investor sales at Lloyds Bank in London, where he worked for over five years. Previously he has worked in Fixed Income sales management at Societe Generale, HSBC, Citi and Deutsche Bank.

Paul joins as THETA is due to launch its trading system for the buy-side, Apollo, later in 2021. Apollo is a cloud native SaaS super aggregator, designed from the ground up to address the gaps and challenges faced by firms as market structures and trading landscapes evolve.

Abdullah Hiyatt, THETA Founder & CEO, commented, “As we move closer to launching Apollo we continue to raise awareness among buy-side trading firms and grow our sales pipeline. Paul’s appointment accelerates this process, as he provides us with unrivalled Fixed Income knowledge, business development expertise and a wealth of senior industry relationships.” 

Paul Flanagan commented, “As the trading landscape evolves at speed, buy-side firms are increasingly demanding more flexible, modern and efficient electronic trading technology. THETA provides an ideal technology platform to automate electronic trading workflows together with actionable integrated pre-trade pricing data. From initial discussions with market participants, there is already a great deal of interest in THETA’s super aggregator, Apollo. I am confident that by introducing Apollo to my industry relationships we will quickly extend distribution to an extensive group of institutional investors”

The Apollo platform provides multi-channel liquidity aggregation and trading, initially for Fixed Income. FX trading will be added later in 2021 and Equities during 2022. THETA has already built trading and data connectors for MarketAxess, Tradeweb, MTS BondVision, UBS Bond Port, Neptune, BondCliQ, IHS Markit, ICE Data Services, and Refinitiv amongst others. The SaaS platform integrates with clients’ existing P/OMS systems via FIX and REST APIs.

Engaging with niche and leading asset managers, equivalent to $5 trillion AUM, THETA plugs the gap between current EMS capabilities and the evolving new trading landscape demanded by traders and regulators. 

The Board of Banking Competition Remedies Ltd (BCR) today publishes progress updates for Pool E recipients, providing a summary of performance against their public commitments to the period 31^st May 2021.

The public commitment updates this reporting period indicate that the awardees are now advanced in deploying the CIF spend and making significant progress in their deliverables, developing valuable propositions to UK SMEs. While a small number will not see the impact they had hoped for in respect of SME take up in the short term, as the market returns to normal, their propositions will be a strong value add to UK SMEs. BCR has now held review meetings with all awardees and four (Virgin Money UK PLC, Ebury Partners Limited, MarketFinance Limited and ezbob Ltd) have submitted updated business cases which is permitted under the CIF Agreement and subject to approval by the BCR Board. Three of these have resulted in changes to public commitments and Ebury Partners Limited has returned funds of £7.5m as highlighted in BCR’s press release last week which can be found here. Awardees progress against public commitments made can be found here.  

Aidene Walsh, CIF Executive Director, said: “Pool E awardees are starting to make important inroads in delivering on their public commitments. A number have improved their brand awareness whether through partnerships with the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), Enterprise Nation or through their own marketing efforts and they are seeing the benefits in increased SME engagement. As is to be expected, the enduring pandemic with its impact on SMEs and, in some cases, Financial Institution partner priorities has caused a couple of awardees to reprioritise or adapt their plans. In approving updated business cases and accepting any returned funds, BCR is confident that the awardees continue to have the offering and ability to make a meaningful difference in the provision of financial services to UK SMEs.”

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

Pool E third quarter update

•       Virgin Money UK PLC public commitment progress update

•       ClearBank Ltd public commitment progress update

•       Ebury Partners Limited public commitment progress update

•       MarketFinance Limited public commitment progress update

•       Funding Xchange Ltd public commitment progress update

•       Codat Limited public commitment progress update

•       ezbob Ltd public commitment progress update

•       Fractal Labs Ltd public commitment progress update

•       Previse Ltd public commitment progress update

The next progress updates for Pool E awardees will be in October 2021. Pool A, B, C and D awardees will provide their next reporting update in August 2021. For more details on how BCR monitors CIF awardees see here.

Pool F: new funding round under the CIF scheme

BCR has £12.5m CIF funding available (referred to as ‘Pool F’) for distribution under the CIF scheme to support A, B and C eligible bodies in providing competition in financial services to UK SMEs. The consultation process is now running and the letter can be found here. Further details on Pool F can be found here.

Kari Ahola, an ordinary member of the Board of Directors of Nordea Bank Abp appointed by the employees of the Nordea Group, will resign from the Board on 31 July 2021. The employees of the Nordea Group have appointed Joanna Koskinen as an ordinary member of the Board of Directors as of 1 August 2021 until the end of the next Annual General Meeting.

Joanna Koskinen, MBA, born in 1977, has worked at Nordea Bank Abp and its predecessors for more than ten years, most recently as a financial adviser. She holds several positions of trust like Vice Chairman of Trade Union Nousu and Board member of Unio Trade Union. Joanna Koskinen is independent of Nordea Bank Abp’s significant shareholders but, as she is employed by Nordea Bank Abp, she is not independent of Nordea Bank Abp, in accordance with the Finnish Corporate Governance Code.

In addition to the members of the Board of Directors elected by the Annual General Meeting 2021, the Board of Directors currently has three ordinary members and one deputy member appointed by the employees of the Nordea Group: Joanna Koskinen, Gerhard Olsson, Hans Christian Riise and Dorrit Groth Brandt (deputy member).

Relevant authority approval of Joanna Koskinen is pending.

Customers using Colt SD WAN can have confidence their service meets the stringent requirements of MEF 70

Colt Technology Services, a leading provider of agile, high-bandwidth connectivity solutions, has today announced it is certified for MEF 3.0 SD-WAN services. This confirms that Colt’s SD-WAN solution conforms to the MEF SD-WAN Service Attributes and Services (MEF 70) global standard.

MEF 70 is the industry’s first global standard definition of an SD-WAN service and its service attributes. It aims to help accelerate market growth, enabling the creation of powerful, new hybrid networking solutions optimized for digital transformation.

“Congratulations to Colt Technology Services on its MEF 3.0 SD-WAN certification,” said Nan Chen, president of MEF. “Companies who purchase SD-WAN from a certified MEF 3.0 service provider can have confidence they will receive services that conform to MEF’s industry-leading global standards. Companies like Colt understand the value that certification provides, including accelerated service deployment and faster time to market.”

Colt’s market-leading SD WAN solution combines the scale and reach of the Colt IQ Network with an expansive set of features that align with customers’ evolving network landscape. Businesses today need to drive digital transformation through unexpected change. With Colt SD WAN, they can address the needs of their growing remote workforces and benefit from the optimization of cloud applications, improved security, insights, and the ability to scale quickly and efficiently.

Colt SD WAN services consumers can now have confidence that they meet the industry’s highest standards created by MEF—the world’s authority for standardized network services. MEF 3.0 SD-WAN certification ensures simplified, pre-validated functionality for customers and frictionless implementation and partnering within the MEF ecosystem.

Peter Coppens, Colt’s Vice President, Product Portfolio, commented: “We're proud that Colt SD WAN is now a MEF 3.0 certified service for the first time. We’ve been investing heavily in our SD WAN solution for the past few years, and this confirms we’re providing a service that meets the needs of our enterprise customers, achieving the meticulous specifications for performance, assurance, and agility set by MEF. By demonstrating compliance with industry-leading standards, we can build further confidence in our customers and underscore Colt’s dedication to the highest levels of service and continued innovation.”

For further details about Colt’s SD WAN solution, visit colt.net/product/sd-wan.

 Identitii Limited (Identitii, Company) today announces that global payments company Novatti Group Limited (Novatti) will become the first customer to adopt Identitii’s brand new Software as a Service (SaaS) version of Overlay+, after signing a three-year licence agreement.

In addition to the market segments Identitii is currently focused on, Overlay+ SaaS opens several additional market segments to generate entirely new revenue streams. More than 14,000 non-bank AUSTRAC reporting entities can now use Overlay+ to submit complete and accurate regulatory reporting, with similar opportunities in other global markets, significantly expanding the total addressable market.

New market segments such as Money Transfer, Casinos, Super Funds, Insurance Companies, Foreign and Crypto Currency Exchanges can access Identitii’s fully cloud-native platform without bespoke software deployments. With shorter buying cycles, these new segments will deliver the Company faster and more linear revenue growth, supporting the long waiting periods between larger contracts with banks.

Commenting on the announcement, John Rayment, CEO, Identitii, says: “Introducing SaaS functionality for Overlay+ is an important part of our product roadmap, as it opens entirely new market segments and additional revenue streams for Identitii. We are thrilled to announce both this new functionality and the first customer to use it, as we announce a three-year licence agreement with Novatti.”

Commenting on the announcement, Peter Cook, Managing Director, Novatti, says: “This new partnership with Identitii highlights Novatti’s commitment to a strong compliance base. Working with Identitii further strengthens our AUSTRAC compliance reporting and operations, enabling Novatti to efficiently scale our business and provides our innovative fintech partners with further confidence in providing new products and solutions to market.” 

Novatti and Identitii have entered into a Software Agreement (Agreement) under which Novatti will licence Overlay+ (SaaS) to streamline and automate AUSTRAC reporting. The Agreement is for three years and is worth $0.18M to Identitii. Commercials will be reviewed annually and either party has the right to terminate the contract for any reason, with 30 days’ notice.

This announcement has been approved and authorised to be given to ASX by the Board of Identitii Limited.

• Appital’s bookbuilding technology complements Turquoise Plato Block Discovery to the benefit of end investors 

• The Appital platform proactively sources liquidity for institutional investors

• Appital users benefit from single point of access and execution via Turquoise, with seamless STP to 20 settlement venues

Appital, the Equity Capital Marketplace, today announced its cooperation with Turquoise, the pan-European MTF, majority-owned by London Stock Exchange Group in partnership with the user community, to unlock latent liquidity opportunities and bring further efficiency to equity capital markets. 

Appital gives the buy-side community greater exposure to deal flow opportunities they have not been able to access before. The Appital platform unlocks latent liquidity and efficiently drives a bookbuilding process, providing deal originators with opportunities to execute large volumes, often in excess of 5 days of ADV, with minimal market impact or risk of price erosion. At the same time, the platform enables deal participants to highlight the types and sizes of opportunities they are looking for, specifying market, sector, market cap and size of interest.  

Block trading has become increasingly mainstream among institutional investors seeking access to liquidity, with block trading mechanism Turquoise Plato Block Discovery reporting record volumes over the last year. 

The cooperation between Appital and Turquoise brings together complementary capabilities to the benefit of issuers and investors. Appital users will be able to execute all deals through the Turquoise MTF, via a single point of access and with seamless straight-through-processing (STP) to over 20 settlement venues. Additionally, institutional investors will be able to take advantage of an innovative and efficient way to access liquidity opportunities and trade in a market for size, at the best price.

Appital is actively building out its platform and technology infrastructure with forward-looking buy-side firms and vendors for a launch later this year. 

Mark Badyra, CEO of Appital, said: “We are delighted to partner with Turquoise to provide the buy-side community with the ability to proactively source liquidity in the market and interact with like-minded institutions in the liquidity formation process. Working with a champion of innovation such as Turquoise is allowing us to realise our ambition to give institutional investors real-time visibility, full transparency and maximum control over the bookbuilding and deal distribution process.”

Badyra added: “Both of our firms are committed to delivering technological solutions for the buy-side and we see this as a real opportunity to continue to promote London and the UK as a centre of excellence for innovation within global capital markets.”

Dr Robert Barnes, CEO, Turquoise Global Holdings & Group Head of Securities Trading at LSEG, commented: “Turquoise is committed to serving our customers through innovation. Connecting to Appital will bring additional transparency and automation to the process of liquidity discovery. I look forward to continuing our cooperation with Appital to unlock liquidity for investors.”

Brian Guckian, Chief Business Development Officer, Appital, added: “The combination of Appital and Turquoise is a true evolution of the market and provides a venue for the buy-side to drive liquidity and efficiently trade the full spectrum of trade sizes.”

Soldo,the leading European pay and spend automation platform, today announces that it has closed a $180m oversubscribed Series C funding round, a European record for the spend management category. 

The fundraise was led by Temasek, a leading global investor headquartered in Singapore.  

The round includes new investors Sunley House Capital, Advent International’s crossover fund, Citi Ventures and continued backing from Accel, Battery Ventures, Dawn Capital, and Silicon Valley Bank for debt financing. Goldman Sachs acted as the exclusive placement agent to Soldo for the deal. 

This investment follows an impressive 4x growth in spend volume across Soldo’s platform since series B, despite the backdrop of the challenging macro-economic environment. 

Soldo’s European pay and spend automation platform gives businesses real-time visibility and cost control across all departments. The funding round means Soldo can continue to accelerate product development and market expansion across Europe’s addressable market of $170bn.  

Serving more than 26,000 customers from small and mid-market to global enterprise in more than 30 countries, Soldo is best positioned to help businesses to manage their spend. Whether that is across travel and entertainment, online advertising, vendor management, software subscriptions, or anything else. Its customers include Mercedes Benz, GetYourGuide, Gymshark, Bauli, and Brooks Running. 

Carlo Gualandri, CEO and Founder of Soldo said: “We are delighted to welcome Temasek as the lead investor. With a track record of investing in category-leading fintechs, Temasek’s insights will be valuable to us as we scale our platform and offering. Managing business spend is costly and challenging, yet Soldo continues to demonstrate its value and ease to customers of every size and across every industry. It’s clear this category will see exponential growth as more businesses realise the benefits and Soldo is well placed to support them.” 

Traditionally, corporate payments have had a handful of methods: bank transfers, corporate credit cards. Each of these methods bring a unique set of administrative hassles and security risks. And, of course, once the transactions are complete, there is a haze of receipts, expense reports, classification and reconciliation, budgets, and analysis – none of which is connected. Soldo is the digital solution to this incredibly costly challenge. 

Simon Lambert, a director at Sunley House, Advent International’s crossover fund, said: “We are very excited to invest in Soldo. Our experience in software and payments technology gives us deep insight and we are confident Soldo stands at the forefront of finance digitalisation. The company operates in a large and fast-growing market, and we are thrilled to partner with its outstanding management team as they seek to build Europe’s leading pay and spend automation platform.” 

Soldo’s spend management platform, built over the last five years, is based on a fully owned technology stack, supported by regulated financial services and payments infrastructure. The platform allows Soldo to innovate faster and integrate with the leading accounting software including NetSuite, QuickBooks, Zucchetti, and Xero, and customers can connect with 50+ expense management platforms including Concur and Expensify via Mastercard Smart Data. 

Luis Valdich, Managing Director, Citi Ventures said: “Citi Ventures has been impressed by Soldo’s compelling strategy and market-changing mission to help businesses manage and control spend more efficiently. We look forward to supporting the company as it further expands its platform and transforms the future of business spend.”  

Soldo also simplifies the everyday life of employees who regularly deal with painful expense reports, lost receipts and often end up out of pocket. The mobile app facilitates receipt and transaction capture right at the point of purchase.  

Mariano Dima, Soldo President said:  “We know senior finance employees and CFOs currently spend more than half of their time on cumbersome tasks, and the biggest reason for this is due to disconnected payment systems and manual, time-consuming processes. 

“In a study of CFOs and finance directors, Soldo revealed weak spending controls are costing European businesses 2% of their annual turnover through the pandemic. This is a costly reality that Soldo aims to eradicate – by making employees’ lives easier and businesses more aware of all costs – because only then will they be able to truly control their spending and be prepared to prosper post-pandemic and beyond.”

Soldo closed $61 million in Series B funding in July 2019 and has since significantly increased the size of its business with more than 200 employees across offices in London, Dublin, Rome, and Milan. The latest funding round will see the company deepen its focus on new markets including Benelux, France and Germany where Soldo sees immense potential for hyper-growth.