Outlines progress towards an inclusive, sustainable future for people and the planet.

Mastercard released its 2020 Corporate Sustainability report, highlighting how the company has responded to the challenges of the last year through innovation and trusted partnerships and is delivering on its mission to build a more inclusive, sustainable world with a digital economy that works for everyone, everywhere.

“This unprecedented year reinforced how important it is for us to help those in need today and continue to build a more inclusive and sustainable world,” said Michael Miebach, chief executive officer, Mastercard. “For us, sustainability means ensuring everyone has the same opportunities to grow and thrive in alignment with the planet. This year’s report is a reflection of all that we have achieved and marks an important moment to share the progress we continue to make together."

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE REPORT INCLUDE:

01
Inclusive Growth

• Made a five-year $250 million commitment to provide small businesses with financial tools, technology, products, funding, and data insights necessary to weather the pandemic.
• Committed $500 million over five years to help close the wealth and opportunity gaps faced by Black communities in the U.S.
• Achieved our goal of financially including 500 million people and expanded our commitment to reach a total of 1 billion people, 50 million micro and small merchants, with an emphasis on 25 million women entrepreneurs, by 2025.
• Launched more than 100 government relief programs in response to COVID -19 to assist with inclusive recovery around the world.

02
Our People and Culture

• Tied executive compensation to ESG goals and priorities, including carbon neutrality, gender pay parity and financial inclusion.
• Supported workforce with no COVID-related layoffs in 2020 and invested in new mental and physical wellbeing policies and programs.
• Launched Investing in You program, increasing our employer 401K match to 10% for every 6% contributed by employees.
• Reached the million-girl milestone since the start of our STEM-based Girls4Tech program, leading us to commit to engaging five million girls by 2025.

03
Environmental Stewardship

• Disclosed the results of our initial Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures analysis.
• Committed to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 across our operations and value chain, building on our existing science-based targets.
• Issued a $600 million sustainability bond to support carbon reduction, supporting environmental choices for customers, and fostering inclusive growth.
• Launched the Priceless Planet Coalition with now more than 60 partners with a goal to restore 100 million trees over five years.
• Exceeded 10 million cards made from approved sustainable materials using Mastercard’s Sustainable Card Materials Directory.

04
Ethical and Responsible Standards 

• Committed to increase annual spending with Black suppliers by more than 70%, to $100 million annually by 2025.
• Extended our Specialty Merchant Registration program that require banks to certify strong control measures related to materials published on adult content sites.
• Announced the new Enhanced Contactless (Ecos) specifications, applying the latest quantum-resistant technologies to deliver enhanced privacy, security and trust for the next generation of contactless payments.

Gerard Grech, CEO of Tech Nation, comments on Revolut becoming Britain's most valuable fintech firm ever:

“Revolut is a true British success story and one that exemplifies the strength of the UK’s scaling fintechs. Our fintech sector is world leading, raising $5.4bn in the first half of this year alone.

“The valuations we’re seeing today are a testimony to the pool of immense homegrown talent, and talent from across the world, choosing to start and scale their business here. It also reflects the strength of support the UK provides to help ambitious tech companies scale. Revolut joined Tech Nation’s Future Fifty programme in 2019, specifically designed to support founders in addressing the unique challenges faced by the most successful tech companies in the country.

“UK tech has been going from strength to strength this year, surpassing the incredible milestone of 100 unicorns (tech companies valued over $1bn) and setting a new record for UK tech investment - $18.8bn in the first half of the year. Revolut is an excellent example of a tech business cementing the UK’s position on the global stage.”

The latest fine issued by the ICO office to transgender charity Mermaid for failing to keep the personal data of its users secure, yet again highlights the importance of regulatory compliance and the need for it to be reviewed thoroughly, rather than taking the easy option of using template documents and a privacy policy on a web site.

“A proper audit of this charity would have revealed not only the data that was no longer in use but also remind the charity that they still had the data. This is despite the fact that the service had been discontinued some time ago. The audit would have revealed the existence of the data but also the risk that its continual storage posed. Clearly this data was sensitive and contained information that the GDPR classifies as special category data. We have always recommended that the storage of such data should be avoided where possible. However, if this cannot be avoided then the data should be encrypted or deleted if no longer required or a legal basis for retaining it no longer exists.

“Donors give money to the charity to help other people that need its help, not for that money then be given to the ICO. Incidents like this can have a serious effect on the charity’s fundraising as well as shatter confidence in the charity itself.

“The ICO report has confirmed that mermaids have now improved their data protection practices. This is all too common, and we hear it all the time. The businesses we do not hear about are those that have put their house in order and therefore problems like this are avoided. Preparation is better than firefighting. We concede that GDPR can be daunting but it needn’t be.

“An audit fee at the start of the process would have been a fraction of the price which would have cost around £4000 and avoided the loss of time in addressing the problem- a far more cost effective route than the £25,000 the charity now needs to pay, plus the time to deal with the issue”.

Senior executives from Emma — The Sleep Company Back Market, Wish.com, Hot Topic, Samsung, Boardriders and Crown & Caliber join Signifyd to form a future-focused retail think tank 

Signifyd today announced the newest members of its Customer Advisory Board, a team of future-focused retail leaders from around the world ready to envision the innovations that will continue Signifyd's mission to provide fearless commerce.  

The second class of the Customer Advisory Board represents some of the world’s best-known brands and retail’s most progressive and innovative players. Executives from Emma — The Sleep Company, Back Market, Wish.com, Hot Topic and BoxLunch will join existing Customer Advisory Board members from Samsung, Boardriders and Crown & Caliber for a one-year term. 

Signifyd has built its success on customer compassion, bringing the voice of the customer into every decision the company makes and every feature and product it delivers. The Customer Advisory Board is a significant way for Signifyd to understand its customers’ goals and key initiatives so it can align with their vision and better ensure their success. 

“We’re fortunate to be working with some of the world’s best retail brands,” said Signifyd Co-Founder and CEO Raj Ramanand. “And we’re luckier still to have direct access to their thinking and wisdom through our Customer Advisory Board. Signifyd’s products will continue to squarely address the key challenges that retailers are confronting thanks in no small part to the insights provided by these retail visionaries.”  

Signifyd’s first Customer Advisory Board launched in late 2019 and its members have been instrumental in shaping the products and solutions that are key to its identity centric commerce protection. Those products and solutions include Signifyd’s Commerce Protection Platform for comprehensive fraud and abuse protection across the customer journey, Payments Optimisation to route transactions intelligently down the SCA-compliant path of least resistance, Decision Center for custom policy management, Authorization Rate Optimization for higher payment conversion rates, and most recently, Return Abuse Prevention for defense against consumer abuse.  

Signifyd is pleased to welcome its 2021 Customer Advisory Board members: 

·         Sid Goyal, corporate vice president at Samsung, is a polymath with deep experience advising enterprises on the best path forward. 

·         Santosh Marrivagu, head of UK and Ireland at Emma — The Sleep Company, has collected encyclopedic ecommerce knowledge working across all sizes of retail businesses and in a variety of mission critical roles. 

·         Laurene Lecomte, head of risk, payment and fraud management at Back Market is a payment and risk management innovator operating in an organization experiencing dramatic growth and regional expansion.  

·         Wenbo Zhang, director, buyer risk management at Wish.com, has an in-depth understanding of the challenges of fraud and risk management across a number of business models.  

·         Hamilton Powell, CEO at Crown & Caliber,  launched a uniquely better way to buy and sell pre-owned luxury watches that gives customers confidence that every watch is genuine and that Crown & Caliber is building relationships, not just processing transactions. 

·         Anthony Milano, vice president ecommerce, Americas at Boardriders, is a digital innovator with an entrepreneur's spirit who oversees a full roster of apparel brands affiliated with Boardriders.  

·         Steve Vranes, CEO at Hot Topic, BoxLunch and Her Universe, is a visionary omnichannel leader and innovator who has a unique perspective from the top of the ecommerce organizational chart of the premier merchandising platform for entertainment and music 

“We couldn’t be happier than to have this incredible array of ecommerce leaders join our Customer Advisory Board,” Signifyd Managing Director EMEA Ed Whitehead said. “We put a lot of thought into putting together a cross-functional think tank that would enjoy each other’s company, while sharing strategy and best practices with each other.” 

The current Customer Advisory Board members will spend the next year and more exchanging strategic ideas and best practices both formally and informally.  

“I see a broad set of very successful brands.” said Santosh Marrivagu, head of UK and Ireland at Emma — The Sleep Company at the inaugural meeting of the 2021 Customer Advisory Board. “I look forward to exchanging our different perspectives and to learning from everyone. Through all the expertise that unites on the board, I am sure to be part of many exciting and fruitful discussions.” 

The announcement begins an exciting period during which Customer Advisory Board members will challenge each other — and Signifyd — and support each other as they continue to operate at a high level in one of the most challenging and opportunity-laden eras of ecommerce.  

Maria Nottingham, Executive Vice President at Compass Plus, has been named the winner of the Woman in PayTech Award 2021. The award recognises outstanding women for their distinguished leadership, inspiring work, and their commitment to the betterment of the wider payments industry.

Maria received the accolade for building a processing centre designed to cater for the increasingly diverse requirements of payments industry players today, whether disruptive or traditional, large or small, local or international, universal or niche. She successfully led the team of like-minded experts to build an international, universal processing centre that does not hinder customer growth or vision. Maria wanted to create processing services that are not only driven by transaction volumes and complementary services, but also deployment models, flexible vendor independence controlled by FIs, as well as support for new business lines and cross-functionality.

The PayTech Awards are highly respected and well-known in the industry and are hosted by Fintech Futures. They have been running for the past four years and recognise excellence and innovation in the finance and payments industry worldwide.

Maria commented: “I am honoured to receive this award, and would not have won without the support of my incredibly talented and dedicated team, as well as my wise and passionate mentors. I represent Compass Plus and our mission to expand, progress and have a positive impact on the payments industry. I would like to congratulate all nominees for this award, we all deserve this recognition.”

• The arts, entertainment and recreation industry reported that 57% of businesses are experiencing a decrease in turnover compared with normal levels for this time of year (late June 2021).
• The arts, entertainment and recreation industry continue to report the highest proportion of its workforce on furlough leave, at 15%.
• The arts, entertainment and recreation industry, and the accommodation and food service activities industry have seen the largest movements in currently trading businesses year on year, increasing from 34% to 91%, and 41% to 94% respectively.
• The transportation and storage industry had the lowest percentage of businesses currently trading in early July 2021 at 81%, down from 94% in early October 2020.
• The proportion of currently trading businesses experiencing a challenge in importing and exporting is still over 50% and has risen slightly in recent weeks.

The ONS has published the business insights economic survey:

Business insights and impact on the UK economy - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown

‘’With bands booked and curtains ready to rise on new productions, the easing of restrictions in the next few days could finally give arts and entertainment businesses a much-needed pass to a stronger recovery. Tough social distancing rules have delayed a significant bounce back with more than 50% of businesses in the sector still unable to pull in revenues they would usually expect at this time of year before the pandemic hit. The sector still had the highest number of people on furlough, with the delay to so called ‘freedom day’ in June a major set-back.

After the mass closures during the first lockdown and the rolling restrictions ever since, it’s been a tortuous journey of trying to drum up enough trade to reopen, but there is progress being made. The industry has seen one of the largest movements in currently trading businesses year on year, increasing from 34% to 91%. Hospitality has also witnessed a dramatic reopening compared to last year, with currently trading businesses jumping from 41% to 94%.

The doors may be open at venues but there are still plenty of challenges to contend with, not least staff absences and forced closures due to current infection spikes. Just as they are getting back on their feet, there are fresh problems being scanned on the horizon. There are warnings coming from the hospitality and entertainment industries that government plans for Covid vaccine passports for some venues would be confusing and unfair and could lead to a fresh wave of permanent closures.

Staff shortages aren’t just having an impact on the hospitality industry. This snapshot from the ONS also shows that the lack of drivers in the transport industry is hampering trade. The transportation and storage industry had the lowest percentage of businesses currently trading in early July 2021 at 81%, down from 94% in early October 2020. Testing and training of new drivers has been severely limited during the pandemic and it’s having a clear knock on effect.

The challenge for the transportation industry comes at a time when it’s also trying to help customers grapple with the upheaval of new import and export duties for trade to the EU. Far from being unwound the red tape appears to be firmly stuck and increased import duties are continuing to cause a major headache. Importing appears to be more difficult than delivering goods to the EU but more companies have been reporting challenges with exports as well over recent weeks.’’

TIBCO has been named a finalist in the 2021 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards for Microsoft Azure Cloud-Native App Development. As a Microsoft gold certified ISV and leader in cloud API-led integration and analytics, TIBCO was honoured among a global field of top partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology.

“Our continued focus on developing technologies that deliver a cloud-first experience aligns perfectly to our close collaboration with Microsoft and the Azure cloud computing platform,” said Tony Beller, senior vice president of worldwide partner ecosystems and OEM sales, TIBCO. “Together, we enable clients to fast-track innovation strategies, providing them a wide variety of cloud-based services to maximise the value of data to make faster, smarter decisions. To be recognised as a finalist in this exceptionally competitive space is a validation of our deep expertise and a testimony to the success of our joint customers.”

The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards recognise Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered outstanding solutions based on Microsoft products during the past year. Awards were classified in various categories, with honourees chosen from a set of more than 4,400 submitted nominations from over 100 countries worldwide. TIBCO was recognised for providing outstanding solutions and services in Azure Cloud Native App Development.

Together, TIBCO and Microsoft support businesses’ digital transformation strategies through seamless cloud connectivity. With extensive knowledge in on-premises environments, the partners enable companies to easily connect data centres to and from the cloud, empowering everyone within the organisation to integrate anything. TIBCO and Microsoft Azure deliver exceptional offerings for customers in any industry, such as an end-to-end developer or CI/CD solution based on cloud-native architecture. Users benefit from reduced complexity and costs, shorter time-to-market, and decreased maintenance times.

“I am honoured to announce the winners and finalists of the 2021 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards,” said Rodney Clark, corporate vice president, global partner solutions, channel sales, and channel chief, Microsoft. “These remarkable partners have displayed a deep commitment to building world-class solutions for customers – from cloud-to-edge – and represent some of the best and brightest our ecosystem has to offer.”

Comviva, the global leader in mobility solutions, today announced the launch of mobiquity® Pay X, its next generation digital wallet and payment platform. mobiquity® Pay is amongst the world’s largest digital financial services platforms, powering over 70 digital wallets and payment services for 130+ million consumers and processing over 7 billion transactions exceeding USD 130 billion annually in more than 50 countries.

With its new next generation mobiquity® Pay X platform, Comviva has enhanced all aspects of digital financial solution, including scalability, faster deployment and time to market, simpler user lifecycle management & experience and enhanced security.

This new platform is completely built on microservices based architecture with fully independent and reusable components. The enhanced modularity facilitates faster time to market and greater scalability. mobiquity® Pay X has enabled Open APIs to easily integrate with third party systems and extended financial ecosystem. To enhance user experience, the platform now offers a revamped slicker mobile app for consumers, agents, merchants and other business users and provides an advanced User Management System (UMS) that allows back-office users to easily manage the complete lifecycle of consumers, agents, merchants, and other business users seamlessly. Its intuitive user-interface, predefined templates and real-time feedback help quickly perform operations.

The new platform significantly strengthens security with robust authentication and authorization modules. It provides complete flexibility to easily configure various PIN, password and access rules as per the requirements. Its advanced session management capabilities help identify all active sessions and logins from a user through multiple devices and takes corrective action to prevent frauds.

Speaking on the launch, Srinivas Nidugondi, EVP and Chief Growth and Transformation Officer at Comviva, said, “COVID has significantly accelerated the growth of digital financial services and the entire financial ecosystem is growing at its fastest pace ever. Customer demand and public health priorities are pushing contactless payment adoption and our next generation mobiquity® Pay X platform shall help financial service providers scale their digital wallet and payment services faster and seamlessly. With this new platform, Comviva has completely automated the software delivery process. The time to market has improved significantly with continuous product development, integration, testing, release and deployment.”

mobiquity® Pay X offers Order and Payment System that provides consumers a unified view of transactions performed by various payment instruments. It provides end-to-end tracking of entire payment transaction across all stages. It also enables back-office users to view status of payment transactions and identify failed and ambiguous transactions to take corrective actions like refund to complete the order-payment cycle.

The new mobile app is built using best-in-class design practices and has rich features including self-registration, biometric login, profile personalization, payment through multiple instruments (prepaid wallet, card, bank account), favourite transactions, multi-currency support, currency conversion, real time transaction tracking, referral bonus, merchant/agent locator, dynamic QR Code and many more.

With an enhanced monitoring and alerting system, mobiquity® Pay X quickly aggregates system logs and key performance indicator data and provides a real-time bird’s eye view of critical operational parameters through visual dashboards. mobiquity® Pay X has capability of proactive disaster management by identifying threshold breaches for critical application and system parameters in advance and providing real-time notifications for corrective actions.

Comviva has pre-integrated best-in-class technology in the areas of digital KYC and Personal Financial Management (PFM) to offer unparalleled value to consumers. These pre-integrated solutions in addition to offering enhanced experience to consumers, also significantly cut down cost and time to market while launching a digital wallet service. The platform also offers a document management system that provides flexibility to back-office users to quickly retrieve KYC documents a centralized repository for regulatory and business purpose.

• Matrix IDM acts as data hub ingesting and cleansing all data before it is consumed by PEARL

•  PEARL’s standard interface already in use in some of the world’s largest fund management firms

Matrix, the award-winning solution provider to asset owners and managers, and Ortec Finance, a leading global provider of technology and solutions for risk and return management, today announce the release of a standard interface to Ortec Finance’s PEARL system. This has been built as a direct response to client demand and is already in use in a number of leading investment management firms. 

Ortec Finance has over 500 customers in 20+ countries and is trusted by some of the world’ largest financial institutions. PEARL is Ortec Finance’s single-platform solution for Performance Measurement, Attribution, Ex-Post Risk and GIPS composites.

This new initiative will see Matrix IDM ingest and master all data (custodial and market) required for consumption by Ortec Finance’s PEARL. It creates a PBOR (Performance Book Of Record) - essentially taking fund accounting data fit for unit pricing and brings it up to the standards required of a performance system. This new standard outbound interface to PEARL handles everything from holdings to currency weights. The end result delivers clients with a more streamlined and accurate experience in PEARL.

Stuart Plane Matrix IDM comments, “We are delighted to be working with Ortec Finance. Their vision is aligned with ours, which is to empower investment decisions through complete transparency. This statement is not for the faint-hearted. In our experience the complex nature of portfolios makes it challenging to truly understand the exposures at any one time. Our deep expertise in data and Ortec Finance’s comprehensive analytical platform brings this dream to a reality. Matrix is doing what it does best – creating clean and organized data sets which can be easily ingested by PEARL and delivers longevity and higher ROI on the clients technology investments.”

Elske van de Burgt, Ortec Finance comments, “We have a reputation to uphold, so when it comes to technology partnerships we need to be selective and diligent about who we work with. In the case of Matrix we are already delivering positive results to a handful of customers and we have a proven solution in place. We believe that by working with their team and leveraging their advanced data management solutions we will in turn be able to better serve our clients and we look forward to expand our joint client base in the coming months.”