Former Tradelogiq executive Martin Piszel succeeds Stacey Hoisak who will assume her new role as President and Chief Legal Officer

Coinsquare, Canada’s leading digital asset and cryptocurrency trading platform, has announced that its Board of Directors appointed Martin Piszel as its new Chief Executive Officer. Piszel will also join the Coinsquare Board of Directors and Stacey Hoisak will assume her new role as President and Chief Legal Officer.

Piszel is an accomplished executive with more than 25 years of experience in the capital markets and electronic trading sectors, most recently as Head of Corporate Development at Tradelogiq Markets Inc. 

“Coinsquare is entering a new phase in its development and growth as we move ever closer to regulation and to strengthening our position as Canada’s leading digital asset trading platform,” said Jason Theofilos, Chair of the Board. “Martin’s extensive experience in regulated capital markets and the electronic trading space will bolster Coinsquare’s already extremely strong leadership team, and drive further innovation and growth in this next phase of the company’s journey.”  

Prior to TradeLogiq Piszel served as Head and Managing Director, Alternative Execution and Prime Brokerage at CIBC World Markets, and as a member of the Bank’s Equities Management Committee. He also co-founded Alpha ATS, which was later sold to the Toronto Stock Exchange (TMX) and was Vice President, Sales and Marketing at E*Trade Canada.

"It's been my honour to lead Coinsquare through an exciting transitional phase that saw rapid growth and expansion in the Canadian market, strengthened regulatory alliances, and technological advancements in our trading platform and mobile apps,” said Stacey Hoisak. “With significant progress made in realizing the company’s vision to bring the digital currency revolution to all Canadians, it is the right time for this transition to the next leader of Coinsquare. I look forward to working closely with Martin and the rest of the leadership team on driving the implementation of Coinsquare’s longer-term strategies.”

“I am excited to join Coinsquare and its talented team. My extensive capital markets experience will help accelerate Coinsquare’s ongoing goal towards being a fully regulated entity, and strengthen its market position as Canada’s most trusted digital asset exchange. Canadian digital currency adoption still has a long way to go and Coinsquare is well positioned to lead and educate Canadians on this emerging asset class.” said Martin Piszel.

“On behalf of the board I would like to thank Stacey for her leadership and significant contributions to Coinsquare, not least as CEO where she successfully steered the company through a significant period of growth and further down the path of full regulatory compliance,” said Jason Theofilos. “Under her leadership, Coinsquare was able to leverage strong market conditions and strengthened partnerships, secure external capital investments and embark on a new phase of company expansion. As President and Chief Legal Officer, Stacey will continue to play a key role in the future of the Company, and we look forward to continuing to work alongside her.” 

Credit information leader launches pan-African SME initiative, ahead of global rollout

Creditinfo Group, the leading global credit information and decision analytics provider, is today announcing the launch of a scorecard solution tailored for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Through its unique approach to data and algorithms, this scorecard will help financial institutions improve their credit assessment and facilitate financing to the SME market, which has typically been less able to access finance.

Creditinfo, recognising the importance of SME risk assessment across the world is aiming to roll out a global solution to address this challenge. The company will first launch the SME scorecard in Kenya, ahead of a wider rollout across countries in Africa, and several other key economies across the globe

The unique modelling approach Creditinfo have developed significantly reduces, and in some cases eliminates, the human effort needed to assess customers’ risk profile based on credit data. It is delivered in a software platform which unifies, streamlines, automates and centralises the risk evaluation process. Creditinfo’s SME scorecard is considerably stronger at predicting business failure than existing traditional models.

Burak Kilicoglu, Director of Global Markets at Creditinfo, commented, “SMEs drive innovation and push digitalisation forward for many people by providing services to underserved segments of the population and creating job opportunities. SME scorecards will accelerate access to finance for the benefit of whole economic ecosystem. At Creditinfo we have access to a wealth of credit bureau data as a starting point, and so are uniquely positioned to offer this solution in global markets.”

Kamau Kunyiha, CEO of Creditinfo CRB Kenya, added, “Kenya is the most dynamic and receptive market for SME lending innovation, demonstrated by the successful adoption of mobile wallets and microloans. We look forward to seeing the economic impact of this new solution as it comes into full effect and we see more capital flowing through the SME economy.”

Together, Vindicia and Chargebacks911 look to prevent chargebacks and recover revenue lost to friendly fraud as more online merchants turn to subscription billing models

Chargebacks911, a dispute management specialist, announced today that it has formed a strategic collaboration with Vindicia, part of the Amdocs (NASDAQ: DOX) Media Division and a leader in business-to-consumer digital services monetization.

The collaboration comes at a time when chargebacks are increasing at an alarming rate. Largely driven by friendly fraud – when a customer files a chargeback instead of trying to first obtain a refund from the merchant – chargebacks have a destructive effect on a business’s ability to grow and retain revenue, and can increase the cost of payment services.

“When authorized cardholders dispute legitimate charges to their credit cards, it pushes the bank to force a refund back to the customer under the pretense that the merchant made an error,” said Monica Eaton-Cardone, COO and co-founder of Chargebacks911. “This behavior needs to be identified and corrected to prevent merchants suffering illegitimate losses. That’s why a partnership with a leader in subscription commerce monetization solutions like Vindicia is so important to the industry.”

The cost of this industry’s chargebacks is as much as $250 billion annually by some analysts’ estimations. These costs come in the form of fees and fines, false declines, return fraud, and many other expenditures throughout the entire transaction process – from the issuing bank to payment processors.

“Supporting a merchant’s robust subscription base must include a seamless acquisition experience for the subscriber as well as a transparent and easy to follow reconciliation process for merchants to resolve discrepancies,” said Darcy Antonellis, Head of Amdocs Media. “We’re pleased to collaborate with Chargebacks911 as they concentrate on helping merchants retain their revenue via our combined technologies which provide revenue discrepancy resolution.”

Reports also show that consumers who register a chargeback that goes unchallenged are 50% more likely to file another chargeback within 90 days. So, by helping to identify which disputes to challenge, Chargebacks911 will also help Vindicia’s merchants reduce future claims (and the associated costs).

Available immediately, chargeback management solutions include Visa Merchant Purchase Inquiry (VMPI), chargeback alerts, and dispute resolution. For more information, you can learn more here or contact a Vindicia representative.

For more about using chargeback data insights to grow your business with Chargebacks911, go to: chargebacks911.com

Node4, a leading cloud-led Managed Services Provider (MSP), today announced the acquisition of TNP (The NAV|365People), a leading Microsoft Dynamics 365 partner. The acquisition is Node4’s largest to-date and the first since the recent announcement of Providence Equity Partners as its new principal investor. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

TNP sells, implements and supports business solutions based upon Dynamics 365 Business Central, Power Apps and Power BI. TNP is the largest pure-play Microsoft partner in the UK in this market segment and brings a wide range of complementary skills to the Node4 portfolio. Delivering business systems and support to more than 500 customers, TNP’s track record, skillset and experience will significantly enhance Node4’s end-to-end managed services portfolio. With Gold Microsoft Partner Status across ERP, Application Development and Cloud Platform, and additional Microsoft certifications including Small and Mid-Market Cloud Solutions, Data Analytics and Application Integration, the TNP team has delivered industry-leading services and support and exceptional financial performance via a long-standing customer base generating high levels of recurring revenue.

The acquisition will see TNP become part of the Node4 Group, with TNP continuing to operate as an individual business unit under the leadership of Paul White, Executive Chairman, with the support of Paul Wellingham, Chief Commercial Officer, and Ian Humphries, Founder and Chief Architect, along with TNP’s 260 staff and highly skilled consultants. TNP will benefit from access to Node4’s wider portfolio of cloud-based infrastructure services and industry-leading support, while significantly enhancing Node4’s ability to deliver Microsoft-based business applications services. 

From healthcare providers who need to deliver critical care faster and insurers who must provide secure digital services to housing associations bringing self-service applications to their tenants’ fingertips, businesses rely on Node4 to deliver mission-critical IT around the clock. The acquisition of TNP expands Node4’s capabilities into the large and addressable ERP market, which Node4 estimates will exceed £2 billion in value by 2024, underpinned by ERP penetration, continued cloud migration and supportive vendor strategies. Together, Node4 and TNP will provide an integrated, end-to-end customer experience, with cloud-led solutions that improve productivity and increase agility for new and existing customers.    

“TNP is a hugely impressive organisation and this acquisition is an important part of our ongoing growth strategy. Everything from its leadership and team to culture and capabilities resonates with the approach we have here at Node4,” said

Andrew Gilbert, CEO of Node4. “They have an ambitious and compelling organic growth plan in an important segment of the technology industry and TNP’s technical capabilities and credentials in NAV, Business Central and Power Platform ideally complement Node4’s already comprehensive portfolio of services. We’re confident that together we can deliver the market-leading end-to-end services that customers are increasingly looking for.”

Paul White, Executive Chairman of TNP, said: “This announcement is another exciting development in the TNP story.  It was clear from the outset that we share a common passion for delivering exceptional service and as part of Node4, we can play a major role in the ongoing growth of the Node4 business and help more customers use technology more effectively to optimise their business processes and improve productivity.” 

Exizent is the first ever platform to connect data, services and the network of people involved when someone passes away. 

It enables users to capture all estate information in easy to navigate cases, add relevant personal details, assets and liabilities, upload relevant documents and use Exizent’s expanding range of data searches to quickly populate missing information. Court and tax forms - including PA1 and IHT - can then be pre-populated from case data and exported, and everything is archived securely for reference or further work.

Exizent was initially launched to help legal services firms working for executors to efficiently manage the process of completing and submitting probate applications. Now, in response to the growing number of accountancy firms that manage probate cases for their clients, the platform has launched for accountants too, as Nick Cousins, CEO explains:

“For many years accountants have been supporting clients with probate, as they often have an existing relationship with and extensive knowledge about the deceased’s financial affairs, but historically a solicitor would still have been needed to carry out the legalities. 

 “That was until 2014, when the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) became the first approved probate regulator and licensing authority outside the legal profession*. This means members are able to carry out probate for their clients and since then, increasing numbers of people are turning to their accountants to handle the process.”

The probate process is understood to be lengthy and time consuming, and often plagued with delays, making the entire experience difficult and complicated for everyone involved. Exizent’s recent ‘Bereavement Index’, which talked to professionals and the bereaved about their experiences discovered that of those that had suffered a loss, 94% found at least part of the bereavement process stressful, and 87% agreed probate was a source of stress.

Nick continues: “We believe the administrative tasks facing families after the death of a loved one should be far easier, and that modern technology solutions and services can make this a reality. We have spent 18 months carefully designing, developing, and testing our product with innovative partners and launched the platform to legal services professionals late in 2020.

“Over the past months we have been working closely with several accountancy firms to ensure the platform is offering them what they need and following a successful pilot with them are excited to now launch the platform to the accountancy sector.”

The next stage of Exizent’s development is to build digital connections with the various institutions that hold data and information about the person who has passed away to help them deal with queries from executors, accountants and legal services firms more efficiently. Exizent is currently piloting this functionality with the Scottish Building Society.

 Leading smart payments provider and merchant acquiring bank, Credorax, has announced it is upping the ante in the world of fraud protection and chargeback mitigation by launching a cutting-edge solution to preventing chargebacks.

Credorax’s Chargeback PREVENTION marks a landmark partnership with Ethoca (owned by Mastercard), the leading, global provider of collaboration-based technology, and Verifi (a Visa solution), the leading provider of transaction risk management services for card-not-present merchants.

Merchants can now take control of their chargebacks by preventing chargebacks before they are initiated. Credorax’s innovative service offers merchants the ability to create rules that automate refunds or issue a manual refund after receiving an alert – both stop disputes from escalating to chargebacks.

Chargeback PREVENTION is part of the Credorax Risk Management suite and protects merchants from fraud and chargebacks through every stage of the transaction lifecycle. Credorax’s unique solution seamlessly combines the ingenuity of machine learning intelligence and intuitive data analysis to continually improve its fraud detection algorithm. It can accurately detect legitimate and fraudulent transactions on a large scale.

Depending on individual merchant needs and risk preferences, thresholds and rules management can be changed as and when necessary, tailored to the merchant’s unique requirements.Credorax also provides dedicated training to help merchants become familiar with Credorax’s fraud and chargeback prevention tools and optimise them based on a merchant’s particular specifications.

Drawing upon data from the world’s biggest ecommerce brands, banks, and payments providers, with Credorax’s  Chargeback PREVENTION, merchants can view dashboards where they can monitor transactions, specific transaction rules and view alerts, giving them a complete overview their transaction lifecycles.

Moshe Selfin, Chief Technology Officer for Credorax, commented: “Ecommerce is booming, which means fraud and chargebacks rates are also accelerating – shockingly, merchant losses to friendly fraud were estimated to amount to over $50 billion in 2020. While far from ideal, the current state of play is undoubtedly driving levels of innovation and solution like we’ve never seen before. The sheer demand for turnkey, preventative fraud management systems, like ours, coupled with the advances in AI and real-time detection has the ability to put merchants on the front foot when dealing with fraudsters – a position they’ve never really been in before.

“With access to broadest possible range of bank issuer coverage globally, merchants have never been in a stronger position to armour themselves against the high costs and reputational hits that come with such attacks.”

Credorax is a full-service payments processor and acquirer dedicated to helping merchants by using cutting-edge technology and insights to bring innovative solutions to the market. Its payment experts are available to explain in more detail how you can benefit from its chargeback management and representation services.

Moshe added: “Our vision at Credorax has always been to provide merchants with the technology they need to take advantage of the global opportunities available to them. All while being safe in the knowledge that there are proactive and preventative measures in place that will make cross-border trading a pleasure and not a pressure.

“With a robust onboarding process that allows for an ongoing customer management journey with our specialist teams all over the world and a deep understanding of the nuances of payment processing, this is an exciting milestone in our ambition to further enhance Credorax’s exciting suite of offerings.”

For more information about Credorax’s Chargeback Prevention, visit: https://learn.credorax.com/contact-us

FinecoBank announces funds from International Asset Management (IAM) are now available on its investing platform.

IAM is one of the oldest independent asset management firms specialising in Hedge Funds and Alternative UCITS investments, with a proven track record of over 30 years.

This announcement follows on from earlier announcements that funds from AXA, BNY Mellon Investment Management, Invesco, Vontobel and Wellington joined the Fineco platform this year.

Paolo Di Grazia, deputy general manager, Fineco: “We are committed to offering our customers wide-ranging and diverse investment options. The addition of International Asset Management is perfectly aligned to our growth strategy, and we are on course to achieving our goal as a world class provider of funds that meet all our customer needs.”

Mirko Butti, managing partner at International Asset Management (IAM): “We are thrilled to be part of this new and exciting venture. Both our values and the direction in which we want to head are the ideal match to Fineco’s approach. We look forward to working together and continuing to meet the ever-changing needs of our clients.”

More than a quarter of decision-makers in buy-side financial firms (28%) cite a fragmented and unreliable data management infrastructure that struggles to cope with increasing data volumes as the biggest data management challenge they face. Meanwhile, a further 8% highlighted a problem with IT bandwidth, stating: “Our IT teams are overrun and cannot focus on strategic initiatives or improvements”, according to research conducted by Alveo, the leader in market data integration and analytics solutions for financial services.

Many also report low data management maturity. Nearly a quarter (24%) of the sample rate themselves low on the scale of the CMMI Institute’s Data Management Maturity Model: “Data is managed for ad hoc requirements. Processes are typically not applied across business areas. Process discipline is primarily reactive; for example, data quality processes emphasise repair over prevention. Foundational improvements may exist, but improvements are not yet extended within the organisation or maintained.”

Just 9% claimed to be at the higher end of the CMMI Institute’s scale where: “Data is seen as critical for survival in a dynamic and competitive market. Process performance is optimised through applying analysis on defined metrics for target identification of improvement opportunities. Best practices are shared with peers and industry.”

Martijn Groot, VP Marketing and Strategy, Alveo, says: “Many buy-side firms are overwhelmed by the data management challenges they face – from quickly onboarding and integrating the content they need in the investment management process to keeping up with client, investor and regulatory reporting requirements. Many feel that they are running to stand still and need to rethink their data management and analytics to properly provision their business.”

The survey also identified more specific data management challenges buy-side firms face including the collection and aggregation of environmental, social and governance (ESG) data sets. Just 45% of the sample says their organisation centralises the management of market and reference data, something which can make data more accessible, usable and secure and harvest all the data assets in a firm.

More than three-quarters (77%) say their organisation requests the same data multiple times from a single data vendor, leading to unnecessary duplicate data costs. Many firms are open to help here. When asked would their organisation seriously consider outsourcing market data management activities to a trusted third party, 64% said “yes”.

As Groot states: “On the data management side, there is a growing emphasis on rigorous processes with clear data lineage, data quality assurance and governance, both for compliance and operational efficiency. Buy-side firms know they would struggle to deliver this on their current in-house often homegrown solutions. Outsourcing the work to a trusted third party partner offers them an attractive, alternative route map forward.”

Trov (www.trov.com), a global leader in embedded insurance, today announces that Hamilton Fraser (www.hamiltonfraser.co.uk), a leading provider of insurance and services to the private rented sector, has signed-on as one of Trov’s newest partners, enabling the insurer to offer digital insurance products to its customers by deploying Trov’s white-labelled solution.

In addition to Hamilton Fraser, who will offer its customers digital renters insurance, Trov is welcoming four major proptech brands to its roster, including ideal flatmate, a flat sharing platform, Movebubble, a property rental platform, good2rent, the tenant referencing solution, and Vaboo, a customer engagement platform used by letting agents which manages rewards for renters and landlords. The new partners join Trov’s growing embedded insurance customer-base which includes fintechs, retailers, neo-banks, utilities, and proptechs such as Love to Rent, OpenBrix, Moovshack, and Movinghub, all of whom onboarded earlier this year.

With the majority of the UK now returning to a typical daily routine, which will involve leaving homes and possessions unattended for the first time in over a year, Trov’s flexible renters insurance, which is powered by its innovative technology, will bring a welcomed peace of mind to many of its partners’ customers.

“By enabling our partners to deliver a compelling user experience while helping to close consumer protection gaps, our embedded insurance capabilities increase customer loyalty, lifetime value, and delivers high-margin recurring revenue. Our APIs and no-code options combined with a growing network of insurance products mean that digital brands will benefit from offering a wide array of flexible insurance products to their customers.” comments, Scott Walchek, Founder and CEO of Trov.

Eddie Hooker, CEO of Hamilton Fraser adds “Having been providing high quality insurance for the last 25 years, we know that in order to meet the ever-changing needs of the customer, we must always be searching for new ways to adapt our business. Our collaboration with Trov will allow us to continue offering the most reliable products to our customers as well as keeping us at the forefront of innovation in our sector. We have been protecting and working with landlords for over two decades, and we are excited to now be able to expand our service to include and offer flexible renters insurance to the wider pool of customers.”

Powering the next generation of insurance, Trov’s technology is purpose built to facilitate the seamless distribution of digital insurance products. In 2021, Trov has a strong queue of brand partners readying to launch not only renters insurance, but other (soon-to-be announced) P&C products.