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. 

Phos, the fintech behind the leading software-only Point of Sale (SoftPoS), has teamed up with German fintech Wellet to enable merchants to accept contactless payments using their smartphone.

Wellet is transforming payments in Germany. Using phos’ innovative technology, Wellet customers can now turn any NFC-enabled Android device into a payments terminal. This eliminates the need for merchants to purchase expensive POS card machines. 

The app works off a smartphone's in-built NFC chip technology. Therefore, no additional equipment is required when using the application, removing the need to spend money on equipment repairs. As it is accessible on a smartphone, the Wellet app is always on hand when required.

Importantly, no monthly fee is collected for the use of the app, making it affordable for small and medium-sized businesses. 

Sergei Tokmakov, CEO of Wellet said: “We’re excited to have partnered with phos to bring a more efficient and cost-effective way of accepting payments to Germany. Due to the high costs associated with physical terminals, many small businesses have traditionally traded with cash. However, health and safety concerns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic made people more hesitant to handle cash. So this SoftPoS technology will be integral to transforming payments in the country, allowing for secure, safe, and easy payments.”

Brad Hyett, CEO of phos, added: “Consumers now demand easy and seamless payment options. As we move away from cash and shift to a digital-first economy, it’s important that we equip businesses with affordable, alternative payment solutions to the expensive physical PoS terminals. It’s great to be working with Wellet to bring this transformative app, powered by our SoftPoS technology, to German merchants. Our  technology is already being used by entrepreneurs in 15 different countries, with plans to expand to the U.S. this year. ”

The Wellet app is secure and safe for users, having been authenticated by German legislation. 

The Wellet app only works on android smartphones. It is available on the Google App store. With the smart app customers can make cashless payments with VISA, EC, Mastercard and other credit cards.

Further information on the Wellet app is available at https://wellet.de/.  

UK SMEs currently spend over £7 billion a year on gas, but if they switched suppliers they could collectively save up to £1.7bn. Love Energy Savings has a large panel of suppliers which includes British Gas, Scottish Power, Octopus Energy and Npower and has facilitated over 350,000 switches saving UK Businesses over £100m so far. 

Fime has been empaneled as an official certifier by India’s DigiSahamati Foundation (Sahamati) to support the organic and sustainable growth of the country’s open banking account aggregator ecosystem. Fime’s expertise and cloud-based open API testing tool, TrustAPI+ are enabling innovation and reducing time to market, while ensuring the highest standard of quality of services. The collaboration is working to enable India to learn from some of the open banking challenges seen in Europe.

Fime’s consultants and testing experts are supporting Sahamati’s Certification Working Group to standardize and augment customer onboarding, data governance and security for the account aggregator network. Account aggregators facilitate the sanctioned sharing of financial information in real-time between Financial Information Providers (FIPs) and Financial Information Users (FIUs). Fime is now working with all parties to test their APIs and integrations, and undergo certification in line with the Sahamati Certification Framework.

Mr. B.G. Mahesh, co-founder of Sahamati, comments: “Our goal is to help drive the adoption of the account aggregator specifications and facilitate the organic growth of the ecosystem. Sahamati is helping to facilitate the consented sharing of financial information to enable use cases such as lending and wealth management. This is helping to drive forward the Make In India initiative by enabling the digital transformation of India’s financial services.”

“Data currently exists in silos and can’t be used effectively by individuals or businesses. This initiative is bringing everyone together to enable data sharing, fostering innovation and bringing more valuable products and services for consumers and businesses,” adds Mr. Angaj Bhandari, India and South Asia Managing Director at Fime. “Certification is a key enabler, protecting the integrity of the space, the APIs it relies on and ensuring the right parties are involved.”

As with all products launched on the Fime Test Factory platform, TrustAPI+ is accessed through a secure cloud portal, allowing multiple users to collaborate on projects even when located across different regions. Contact Fime to learn more about how its experts can support your account aggregator API and integrations projects.

For more on Fime’s work with Sahamati, sign up to our upcoming webinar.

Newly launched clinical tech provider, Comentis, has today announced that it closed a pre-launch funding round at £200,000, against a pre-revenue valuation of £2million. Funding has been secured from a number of senior figures from legal and financial services, with the support of Invest West.

Comentis’ software – the Cognitive Assessment Engine (CAE) – utilises cutting-edge technology to deliver the clinical expertise of renowned mental health experts and psychologists to financial and legal firms during the client risk assessment process. The CAE is a first of its kind for the financial and legal services markets, combining digital and clinical insight to produce an accessible, easy-to-use platform for users to mitigate business risks and better protect clients. 

Comentis’ software is designed to integrate seamlessly with existing technology and processes, to supplement and strengthen the relationships with clients by removing the burden of subjectivity from risk assessments. The CAE is hosted in the cloud and assessments can be accessed via application programming interface (API) or Comentis’ own front-end WebApp. The evidence-based assessment process also provides users with a clear and consistent audit trail to assist them in their regulatory requirements.

The launch of Comentis follows mounting regulatory pressure in the financial and legal services sectors which requires professionals in these areas to better identify, support and protect vulnerable or reduced cognitive clients. This includes the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) guidance on the fair treatment of vulnerable customers published in Q1 2021, in which it estimated as many as 24m UK adults are currently defined as vulnerable. This has since been echoed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), confirming that it will consider client vulnerability when looking into reports of solicitor misconduct.

Jonathan Barrett, Co-Founder & CEO of Comentis, comments: “We’re living through challenging times – a combination of escalating regulatory pressures and a growing number of customers susceptible to vulnerability or reduced cognition means financial and legal professionals currently have their hands full. With the backing of our investors, Comentis’ clinical and digital-based solution will allow us to deliver solutions to our target markets at pace and scale, enabling firms to better identify and protect ‘at risk’ clients with cutting edge technology. The blending of the latest SaaS and cloud applications with clinical expertise is a first in the legal and financial markets, and something that we are confident will drive progress and improvement across the risk assessment process.”

Iain Robertson] at Invest West, comments:

“Our aim is always to bridge the gap between investors and worthy businesses that need support. Comentis has the power to make such a difference both to legal and financial professionals as well as to the customers themselves. This, combined with its first-to-market technology meant that Invest West was proud to support this fundraise, pulling in a number of investors from across the region.”

Claire Barker, investor in Comentis, adds:

“For me, the launch of Comentis was a breath of fresh air in time of increasing pressure on legal and financial professionals to ensure that they have robust processes in place to assess mental capacity and vulnerability. While the tech does not replace face-to-face interaction with customers, and nor should it, it does provide a good base understanding to help advisers to navigate tricky scenarios, and will provide evidence of enhanced due diligence should they need it. Better use of technology is vital to drive financial services forward and Comentis is at the heart of that, so I am excited to be part of the journey.”

 LPA Group, the capital market technology and innovation leader, today announced that Mark Reeves will join the firm as a senior advisor. 

Mark will be based in London and his focus will be to accelerate growth in LPA’s American and British software and consulting businesses, building on the firm’s strong client base in continental Europe. He will help develop new solutions for the complex capital markets environments, market infrastructure providers and the wider financial sector while building out a team inside LPA. 

Mark has more than 30 years in the financial industry, including senior roles at the National Westminster Bank, Deloitte, TCA Consulting, City Practitioners and Capco.

Commenting on his appointment, Mark Reeves said: “Consulting is very much about culture and style. It’s important that a consultant is matched to a company that is closely aligned to their values. I’ve found a really positive ethos at LPA, which is why I believe this will be a beneficial relationship. I look forward to working in this progressive culture focused on assisting clients and helping to improve performance. I believe LPA has much to offer the market and more importantly to its clients and stakeholders.”  

Peter Schurau, CEO at LPA commented: “Introducing new software systems into banks of any size is a complex role. There are a vast number of internal stakeholders, departments and executives who hold both approval and veto power over decisions. That’s where Mark will add value to LPA. His expertise in communicating across functions and clearly articulating the value of change throughout large organizations will open up new opportunities to fully demonstrate LPA’s value to financial institutions seeking to be more agile and client focused.” 

Fidelity International (Fidelity) today became the first asset manager to sign the Fintech Pledge, demonstrating its ongoing commitment to digital innovation.

The Fintech pledge, which is part of a wider fintech strategy across the UK and  is supported by HM Treasury and the Fintech Delivery Panel, sets world-leading standards to accelerate the growth of the UK’s fintech sector by promoting valuable partnerships between financial institutions and tech scaleups.

By becoming a signatory, Fidelity has committed to adhering to the pledge’s five principles, ensuring a productive relationships with prospective fintech partners:

Fintech Pledge Principles

1. Provide clear guidance to technology firms on how the onboarding process works through a dedicated online landing page
2. Provide clarity to tech start-up firms on their progress through the onboarding process
3. Provide a named contact, guidance and feedback
4. Encourage good practice and improvement
5. Commit to implementing this process six months from signing this pledge and providing bi-annual feedback in the first year

Fidelity has extensive experience investing in new and emerging technologies, through Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, a dedicated venture capital team set up to invest in fintech businesses and technologies.
Alokik Advani, Managing Partner, Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, said: “Engaging with start-ups is a vital component for our business and allows us to continue to drive forward our efforts to incorporate technological innovations for our clients.  We will continue to embrace new and exciting technologies and look forward to partnering with yet more start-ups in the future.  Fidelity International is delighted to be supporting the Fintech Pledge and are proud to be leading the way for the asset management industry.”

Fintech Partnerships underway

Examples of partnerships already underway include SteelEye, the compliance technology and data analytics firm. Fidelity is using SteelEye's data platform to comply with a range of obligations for both oversight and regulatory purposes.

In addition, Fidelity International has partnered with Moonfare, the leading digital investment platform for high quality private markets funds, to let its clients access private market funds. Under the agreement, through its digital platform Moonfare will provide access to private market strategies for Fidelity’s institutional and wholesale clients. This partnership addresses an increasing demand from investors aiming to achieve attractive returns by adding alternative investment strategies to their portfolios.