Thematic investing remains highly regarded among investors. Compared to pre-pandemic numbers, assets in thematic ETFs rose by USD 27 billion, accumulating to USD 133 billion according to CNBC¹. Major economic trends dominate global consumption, which traces back to sustainable usage of Earth’s resources, giving technology that keeps or amps up society’s living standard with a sustainable tilt a boost in demand. Both lithium and autonomous driving & electric vehicles technologies, two topics that emphasize efficiency and the avoidance of negative externalities, are now molded in two new ETFs, which Mirae Asset Global Investments reissues under its TIGER ETF brand in Korea. Both the Mirae Asset TIGER Synth-Global Lithium & Battery Tech Solactive ETF (394670 KS) and Mirae Asset TIGER Global Autonomous & Electric Vehicles Solactive ETF (394660 KS) started trading on July 20^th on Korea Exchange (KRX).

Lithium is one of the most crucial elements in the electrification of devices. Batteries based on lithium technology score with high capacity potential and low self-discharge, compared to legacy battery technology, making the alkali metal a very precious commodity. Mirae Asset’s new TIGER Global Lithium & Battery Tech ETF tracks the Solactive Global Lithium Index, which reflects the performance of the largest and most liquid listed companies active in exploration and/or mining of lithium or the production of Lithium batteries. The index is calculated as a total return index in USD and adjusted semi-annually.

Mirae Asset’s second ETF that launched simultaneously on July 20^th is the TIGER Global Autonomous & Electric Vehicles ETF. This ETF seeks to invest in companies involved in the development of autonomous vehicle technology, electric vehicles (“EVs”), and EV components and materials. According to the International Energy Agency’s “Global EV Outlook 2021”, EV registrations increased by more than 40% in 2020. Still, EVs accounted for less than 5% of new cars sold, highlighting substantial room for further adoption.²

“Imagine a world with lower emissions, optimized traffic, and reduced car crashes. By teaming up with Mirae Asset Global Investments, the Solactive Autonomous & Electric Vehicles Index underpins an ETF designed to capture the ongoing changes in the transportation industry,” comments Timo Pfeiffer, Chief Markets Officer at Solactive. He adds: “With advancements in autonomous & EV technologies and batteries comes a strong growth signal for producers, which benefit directly from this long-term trend. We are excited that Mirae Asset takes the opportunity to opt again for our indices, strengthening our partnership with them in their Korean home-market. We are looking forward to the next projects soon.”

Chun Yong Rhie, Chief Investment Officer at Mirae Asset Global Investments, comments: “Investment interest in lithium technology, autonomous vehicle technology, and electric vehicles among Korean investors continues to gain strong momentum in 2021. TIGER Global Lithium & Battery Tech ETF stands to benefit from the accelerated growth of the secondary battery industry on the back of global renewable energy policies. Furthermore, industry growth will be driven by EV manufacturers’ efforts to increase battery efficiency through R&D investment. The TIGER Global Autonomous & Electric Vehicles ETF offers exposure to companies involved in the autonomous vehicle technology, electrical vehicles, and EV components space.”

Rhie further adds that “the simultaneous launch of the two ETFs pairs well as the lithium & battery tech theme goes hand in hand with electric vehicles. The local listing of the two ETFs will allow investors to purchase the ETFs for their private pension and retirement pension accounts.”

“As the potential of technologies like AI, machine learning and quantum computing become fully realised and applied at scale, R&D funding is more important than ever to turn the UK’s new breed of innovators into game-changing market leaders.

“Funds focused specifically on R&D intensive companies aligned to the UK’s strategic sectors, including net zero companies, will help to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing society today. It will open up new job opportunities, drive economic growth, and cement UK Tech as world-leading.”

LedgerEdge, the next-generation ecosystem for trading, announces the appointment of Michelle Neal as CEO of US operations. 

This appointment will support the US expansion of the firm, which is rolling out a global corporate bond trading platform built on distributed ledger technology. LedgerEdge is starting with the launch of a UK multi-lateral trading facility in Q3 2021, followed by a launch of a US alternative trading system in Q1 2022.

LedgerEdge was founded in 2020 to address historic market structure issues by creating a new ecosystem in which participants maintain control of their data, see the market more clearly, and unlock liquidity in the $41 trillion global corporate bond market.

Neal was most recently Head of US Fixed Income Currencies and Commodities (FICC) and Global Head of Senior Relationship Management at RBC Capital Markets.

Prior to this, she was CEO, Markets at BNY Mellon and served on the bank’s Executive Committee. She has also held senior leadership positions in global markets trading, sales, financing and market structure-related businesses at Deutsche Bank, Nomura, and Natwest Markets.

Neal has been twice recognised as one of the 25 Most Powerful Women in Finance by American Banker and by Financial News’ Top 100 Women in European Finance.

“I am excited to be joining at such a pivotal moment in LedgerEdge’s development,” Michelle Neal said. “I have devoted my career to the evolution and efficiency of capital markets and look forward to working with my new colleagues to further enhance market participants’ ability to unlock liquidity by finding, sharing and trading corporate bonds.”

David Nicol, Co-Founder & CEO of LedgerEdge, said: “We are delighted to welcome Michelle to the team in a key role for LedgerEdge’s growth. She will lead our efforts to serve the world’s largest bond market and provide essential product and market input as we develop the next generation ecosystem for trading. Michelle’s proven capabilities in building businesses and products, her strong network, and her deep expertise in electronic trading will be invaluable to the firm.”

Goal Group, the global fintech leader in withholding tax reclamation and securities class action recovery services, today announces the launch of Treaty Rate Manager (TRM), an online withholding tax reference database providing cost-effective access to the latest treaty rate information across the globe.

TRM from Goal Group includes all statutes of limitations and a simple-to-use tool to quickly determine the applicable treaty rate for a client by selecting their market of investment, domicile, entity type and security type – with over five million reclaim permutations. Available immediately as a monthly subscription, it represents a valuable additional reference for fund managers, custodians, corporate actions systems vendors, research firms, the securities finance sector and other advisers involved in cross-border tax recovery and portfolio planning.   

Goal and its worldwide client base use this data to feed up-to-date treaty rates into withholding tax reclaims on three billion shares annually. This is the first time Goal has offered access to its knowledge base on a standalone basis, and forms part of the company’s new suite of innovative, web-based subscription services for the global investment community. 

Stephen Everard, Chief Executive Officer of Goal Group, comments: “We are excited to present our withholding tax reference data to the market as a very competitively priced monthly subscription service. Our own team relies on this data to deliver our market-leading outsourced reclaim service, and as such, its quality and scope is market-proven. Treaty data are continually updated by our in-house Research team, and clients of TRM will benefit from this. 

“Building and maintaining the knowledge base required to calculate accurate tax reclaims – especially at volume - is simply not viable for most institutions. It makes far more economic sense to leverage the knowledge and dedicated resources of a third-party specialist. We anticipate strong demand from various sectors of the investment community as they sharpen their focus on maximising tax relief for clients, fully meeting their fiduciary duty and turning tax recovery into a lucrative service opportunity.”

Goal’s worldwide client base includes five of the top ten global custodians, six of the top ten global fund managers and all four US depositary banks. 

Helix Applications, the Canadian listed blockchain technology company (TSX Venture: HELX) (is pleased to announce that it has completed the previously announced business combination with GlobalBlock Limited. GlobalBlock is now a wholly owned operating subsidiary of the Company.

GlobalBlock is a fast-growing United Kingdom based digital asset broker that provides a personalised telephone broking service, trading platform and mobile app.  GlobalBlock was established in 2018 by an experienced team of financial services professionals and acts as a trusted agent serving the cryptocurrency needs of individuals, corporates, institutional financial firms and intermediaries, providing best execution trading and safe custody of digital assets.

GlobalBlock is committed to meeting the highest standards of digital asset regulation and customer protection and has been temporarily registered under the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 as a cryptoasset business until 31st March 2022, pending the determination of GlobalBlock’s application by the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom. Plans include looking to expand beyond the United Kingdom, ensuring relevant jurisdiction licences are granted and adhering to local regulations in any new territories it looks to operate in.

Rufus Round, Chief Executive Officer of Helix said:

“As we worked to complete the transaction with GlobalBlock over the past few months, GlobalBlock has been building out its team by adding to its sales, business development and marketing functions. Plans for new products and services are already underway as the new combined business aims to become the leading provider of digital asset broking services in the UK and beyond. This is an exciting time for all current and now new shareholders in the business.”

David Thomas, GlobalBlock Head of Operations, and new Chief Operating Officer of the Company, said:

“We believe that our service led, transparent and secure digital asset platform is a standout to other digital asset trading and custody offerings. Firstly, being UK based and adhering to the highest of regulatory standards is a must in today’s digital asset environment and secondly having a team that has such a wealth of experience in building successful financial services businesses.

“We are hugely excited to complete this this business combination, which allows us to continue to focus on our growth and development within the digital asset space, making us well placed to become the number one digital asset broker within the UK market and beyond.”

Board, Management and Corporate Matters

Management

The Company’s current interim Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Rufus Round, and its Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary, Ms. Jessica van den Akker, remain in place as senior management of the Company and are joined by Mr. David Thomas, who has been appointed as Chief Operating Officer of the Company.  Mr. Thomas is one of the former shareholders of GlobalBlock and his biography is set forth in the May 17, 2021 press release of the Company (the “May Press Release”). 

The other three (3) former shareholders of GlobalBlock, Messrs. Karl Thompson, Patrick Bullman and Tim Bullman remain in place as local management of GlobalBlock.  Biographies for each of these key managers of the combined Company are also set forth in the May Press Release.

Board of Directors

As set forth in the May Press Release, Mr. Jay Sujir has resigned as a director of the Company and has been replaced by Mr. Stuart Olley.  The Company thanks Mr. Sujir for his dedication to the Company.  In addition, Mr. David Thomas has been added as a director of the Company.  Biographies for Mr. Olley and Mr. Thomas are also set forth in that May Press Release.

The Board of Directors of the Company is now comprised of the following members:  Rufus Round, Trevor Gabriel, David Thomas and Stuart Olley.  The members of the Audit Committee of the Company now consist of Rufus Round, Trevor Gabriel and Stuart Olley.

Operational Information

At this time, GlobalBlock only accepts United Kingdom and Ireland resident clients or customers for its digital asset broker or trading services. To be specific, measures (including comprehensive AML/KYC procedures) have been implemented to prevent residents in the provinces and territories of Canada and the United States from becoming clients or customers.

The Company aims to conduct business to the highest industry standards and within the constantly developing global, regulatory environment with regards to digital assets. GlobalBlock primarily holds client assets through the Qredo custodian platform as described below, and through GlobalBlock’s accounts on digital asset exchanges. GlobalBlock has engaged third party digital asset custody provider, Qredo Limited (the “Custodian”) to manage client assets being held internally, through an omnibus account in the name of GlobalBlock. The Custodian accepts an ever growing list of digital assets with more being added, on a frequent basis. The Custodian is not a Canadian or foreign financial institution and is awaiting SOC1&2 attribution, expected in December 2021.  The Company is unaware of any related parties between itself and the Custodian. The Custodian is based in London, United Kingdom and utilizes a multi-signature, MPC (multi-party computation), decentralised storage protocol. The Custodian currently provides US$5 million equivalent of insurance per wallet.  

Name Change

It is intended that the Company will be renamed “GlobalBlock Digital Asset Trading Limited”, or such other name as determined by the Board of Directors of the Company, and as approved by the TSX Venture Exchange.  The Company will issue additional press

Finzly, a fintech provider of modern banking applications for payments, foreign exchange, trade finance and digital account opening, announced today that The Middlefield Banking Company has selected Finzly’s contactless digital account opening (DAO) solution, enabling the bank to gain back-office operational efficiencies that support an enhanced customer experience.

Finzly’s DAO solution enables Middlefield Bank to digitize the entire account opening process and achieve complete automation, as well as co-browsing support, customized onboarding workflows, and analytics to capture customer pain points. The DAO solution provides the bank’s customers with flexibility to open up to 13 account types within minutes, and offers multilevel authentication, external account funding, debit card order and online banking enrollment. With DAO, the bank can combat the latest fraud threats using AI-enabled customer ID verification and “selfie” validation, as well as out-of-wallet questions as needed. 

“At Middlefield Bank, we pride ourselves in providing a quality banking experience for our customers,” said Thomas G. Caldwell, President and CEO, Middlefield Bank. “Finzly’s fully automated DAO solution will further these efforts, giving our customers a modern, flexible approach to opening multiple accounts within minutes. By eliminating manual processing and driving operational efficiencies using DAO, we can continue to deliver a modern banking experience to our valuable customers.”

Using core-agnostic open APIs, Finzly DAO enables the addition or replacement of third-party providers within the process. Accessing the solution via the bank portal, Middlefield Bank can review the status of applications, request more information from customers and intervene in cases where applicants have not provided complete information.

“Finzly is excited to help Middlefield Bank drive a more secure, seamless and modern banking experience through a single digital solution for both consumer and business account opening,” said Booshan Rengachari, founder and CEO, Finzly. “With Finzly’s DAO solution, the bank will have continuous access to the best, most up-to-date offerings available on the market while tapping greater levels of customer-facing flexibility and full automation capabilities to help reduce application abandonment rates.”

The UK Immersive Tech: VC Investment Report, compiled and published by Immerse UK, part of KTN, and HTC VIVE X, features ten companies that are pushing the boundaries of immersive tech, extended reality (AR/VR) and spatial computing, as well as 21 early-stage ventures it considers “ones to watch”.

Tech featured in the report includes training software that allows office workers to swap bodies with colleagues to improve workplace communication and emotional intelligence, surgery simulation for trainee doctors, and interfaces that allow for sci-fi style hand-waving interaction with personal computers.

Asha Easton, Immerse UK Lead at KTN, says: “The ventures highlighted in this report show the huge potential of the XR sector.  They demonstrate some of the various cross-sector applications of this technology ranging from media and entertainment to medicine, manufacturing, education, training, and more.

“This report shows that, as a nation, we are driving this emerging technology and the UK economy is well positioned to benefit from it.  It’s the perfect time for investors to get involved.”

David Haynes, Director of Developer Ecosystem & VIVE X EMEA, HTC VIVE, says: “Amara’s Law states that we tend to overestimate the impact of new technologies in the short term, but underestimate them in the long term.  Sure enough, in 2016-17 we saw record levels of investment going into the immersive sector, and new start-ups created, as VR and AR first came to market in a serious way. However, the following two years saw the hype dissipate.  Now, though, we’re entering a new era where the tech is being used in genuinely innovative and potentially life-changing ways.  The time is right for immersive tech!”

To read the full report, visit www.immerseuk.org.

MYPINPAD, leader in PCI certified software-based payments solutions, today announced it has received further accreditation from the Australian Payments Network (AusPayNet). After making history earlier this year by being the first CPoC (Contactless Payments on Commercial off-the-shelf) solution to attain approval in Australia, MYPINPAD has now also received SPoC (Software-based PIN Entry on COTS) certification.

This makes MYPINPAD the first company to achieve both types of certifications in the region. Its SPoC solution enables card payment acceptance by means of card insertion or tapping onto a card reader paired with merchants’ iOS or Android tablets and smartphones with the option of using PIN entry where needed.

The announcement comes at a time of optimism for the Australian retail sector. Following the challenges  of COVID-19, recently released figures show a 25% year-on-year increase in monthly revenue for the retail industry. As the sector rebounds together with consumers’ preference for contactless transactions, enabling customers to make higher value purchases, with the security of PIN entry if needed, will be hugely beneficial.

In April last year, the Australian government doubled the legal contactless limit to A$200 to help reduce social contact for consumers making purchases in person, a move that was welcomed by merchants and card schemes. Despite decreasing numbers of COVID cases, the country retained the limit in 2021 and further guidance has yet to be issued.

By enabling mobile smart devices to be used for PIN entry on purchases over the contactless limit, MYPINPAD increases the scope in which software-based solutions can be used throughout the retail industry and beyond.

Morten Hofstad, Head of APAC at MYPINPAD comments on the certification: “The news of our CPoC certification earlier this year was a first for the Australian market, and this announcement of SPoC accreditation furthers our capabilities in the region. Being recognised as the only provider to be both CPoC and SPoC accredited is an important step in our Australian expansion, which we see as a key hub for payments innovation.

MYPINPAD’s SPoC solution gives merchants and consumers confidence in using secure and robust payments software that protects their sensitive data, particularly while making higher value purchases. The accreditation will allow us to further innovate in the payments space, opening up new options for merchants throughout a range of industries.”