Ralf Ohlhausen Executive Advisor, at PPRO:

“Given the large number of CBDC projects being conducted around the world, it makes good sense to look at their interoperability and the conversions between them. Currently about 60% of central banks (up from 42% in 2019) are conducting experiments or proofs-of-concepts, whilst 14% are moving forward to develop pilot arrangements. The Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Banque de France are not the first to conduct these tests – Hong Kong and Thailand are also investigating cross-border transfers (Project Inthanon-LionRock).

 “CBDCs, once successfully implemented, could provide a wide range of benefits including driving greater efficiency of cross-border payments. But to be able to achieve this central banks must build a multi-CBDC (mCBDC) approach into their design. A recent BIS report conceptualised this into three models: compatible, interlinked or single mCBDC multi-currency system, and explains that through compatible standards, payment systems can reduce frictions and barriers to a diversity of privately offered cross-border and cross-currency services. This is something to be celebrated as this contributes to greater efficiency and transparency surrounding cross-border payments.”

 Accelitas, a predictive analytics innovator with the mission to reimagine financial access through the transformative power of data, today announced that it has hired new product management and business development leaders to accelerate the growth of its Bank Account Validation and Retail Media Network solutions.

Accelitas is well positioned to lead the breakthrough of Retail Media Networks and other high-volume payment and reconciliation products through its Ai Resolve marketplace platform. As the new Director of Product Management, Jeanette Williamson will expand Ai Resolve’s unique end-to-end automated solutions, which help retailers optimize their supplier relationships and marketing ROI. Williamson brings 20+ years of comprehensive experience in Advertising and Media Technology industries, most recently with Freewheel, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Comcast. Williamson will also help Accelitas build on the success of Ai Verify Bank Data, a powerful tool for online businesses, financial institutions, and business solutions providers establishing recurring and one-time ACH payments. A fast and frictionless way to verify bank accounts in real time, Ai Verify Bank Data helped Accelitas earn recognition as a Nacha Preferred Partner.

Anna Burke joins Accelitas as SVP Business Development, supporting and expanding Bank Account Validation and payment partnerships in the lending space. Burke’s experience includes managing global transaction services for mid-to-large complex corporate clients at Bank of America and aligning national retail and emerging technology verticals, including data solutions at Fiserv.

Finally, Ryan Bench brings expertise in identity and payment sales in his new role as VP of Sales and Business Development. Bench was most recently Vice President of Sales – Retail, Lending, eCommerce – at Giact/Refinitiv. He also served as Sales Director for Biometric Signature-ID, and National Account Manager for Securus Technologies.

The new hires reflect another transformative change - Accelitas will continue to follow their practice of hiring the best people regardless of where they live. Williamson, Burke, and Bench will work remotely for Petaluma-based Accelitas from their home bases of Illinois, Ohio, and Texas respectively.

“Our goal is always to hire the best talent possible, wherever they are and however they work best,” said Greg Cote, Accelitas CEO. “Having a distributed workforce helps us grow to our strengths. Jeanette, Anna, and Ryan are a great fit with our culture and mission at Accelitas, and bring a tremendous amount of relevant experience and new ideas to the table. We are thrilled to have them join our team.”

SE2 is embarking on an ambitious plan to uplift its supplier risk management program to effectively assess critical and outsourced services in a streamlined way using industry best practices. To guide this process, the organization has adopted KY3P® by IHS Markit as its strategic third-party risk management (TPRM) solution. The firm will leverage KY3P as a managed service hosted on the cloud. SE2 is the #1 administrator of variable annuities in the U.S., delivering solutions to innovative life and annuity insurers, with over $100 billion AUM on the SE2 Aurum platform.

KY3P will provide SE2 with a fully managed service solution for TPRM and will handle new vendor requests from onboarding and due diligence through lifecycle oversight and termination. As part of the managed service, SE2 will have access to KY3P’s patented, industry leading platform and the ability to leverage IHS Markit’s industry expertise for TPRM and supplier risk for management and execution of due diligence.

"We are very happy to have selected KY3P for our TPRM program. KY3P gives us a transparent and unified platform for our vendor risk program,” said Josh Everett, Director and Chief of Staff to the CEO at SE2. “The expertise to manage the supplier lifecycle and conduct due diligence allows us to focus on managing the vendors and the risks rather than the process. The fully managed services solution provided by the KY3P team allows me to quickly stand up a world class solution and dynamically scale up as SE2’s success continues in the marketplace."

"Given its impressive and unique position in the industry, we are delighted to support SE2 over the course of their exciting transformation journey and beyond," said Richard Blore, CEO of KY3P at IHS Markit.

"TPRM solutions are rapidly moving to platform and managed services, as it is getting harder and more expensive to find skilled resources with industry experience to manage and conduct end to end third-party risk management,” said Peter Pernebo, Global Head of Third-Party Risk Management Solutions at IHS Markit. “Our solutions across the entire lifecycle include technology and data as well as deeply skilled resources. We are excited and honored by the trust SE2 is putting in KY3P and our people."

Could you have the next billion-dollar business idea? Enabled by technology, company founders from the likes of Gymshark, Brewdog, Zoom, Uber and Deliveroo have already turned that initial idea into reality, transforming the industries they operate in in the process.  
Now, a new competition from the home of technology in business and professional services, SuperTech, is on the hunt for the next unicorn business idea and will be offering a fully funded development programme.

The term ‘unicorn’ was first coined by venture capitalist Aileen Lee in 2013 and refers to any independently owned business worth $1bn (£706m) or more. 

Famous UK unicorns include Scotland’s Brewdog, Deliveroo, and Birmingham-based Gymshark, which employs more than 700 people at its Solihull headquarters.

Six business ideas will be taken from conception through to development and launch. A process that just two years ago would have required £100,000s worth of investment and 1,000s of hours of development and coding time.

Now, thanks to investment by the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) and technology partner Million Labs - which is match funding three of the six spaces - businesses and individuals from anywhere in the UK can create and launch their new product or service idea in a fraction of the time, with funded technology build.

David Hardman, GBSLEP Board Director, said: “For any new business, developing technology comes at a cost and a risk – both of which are known barriers to success. It usually takes time to grow and test the quality of business ideas but thanks to new innovations such as no-code and low-code, work can now progress at speed.

“We’re extremely fortunate here in the West Midlands to have SuperTech - the leading proponent of technology adoption for business and professional services firms in the UK which is supported by GBSLEP and firms like Million Labs who specialise in no-code.

“This new development programme will be led by Million Labs and shows off our unique offering as a LEP to bring public and private sector investment together with view to creating inclusive economic growth through job creation and a greater adoption of technology.

“One of the consequences of lockdown has been the increase in technology adoption, with relatively unknown companies like Zoom becoming household names. I’d encourage anyone, whether within an existing business or as an individual, with a game-changing idea, to enter the SuperTech Seeds competition.'

Former AECOM director & SuperTech executive lead, Hilary-Smyth- Allen added: “Global research firm Gartner has already predicted that low-code technologies will be worth $13.8 billion by the end of 2021, a 22.6% on its $11.2 billion valuation in 2020. As the UK’s largest tech and digital cluster outside of London, as well as the leading regional location for start-ups, the West Midlands is well-placed to become the UK’s new centre of no-code and low-code development.”

“Testament to the potential of the region’s entreprenurial landscape are companies like Gymshark, a Solihull-based ecommerce platform and gym clothing brand that achieved unicorn status in 2020, after raising more than £200 million in growth equity funding, taking its value above $1 billion. Through this latest initiative we’re hoping to encourage a lot more.” 

Jof Walters, who, prior to founding no-code consultancy Million Labs in 2018 bought and sold more than 50 businesses and founded and sold both an international e-commerce platform and a bank, said: 

“While it’s still relatively unheard of, there’s little doubt that no-code is the future of new product and application development. What took Mark Zuckerberg and his fellow Harvard students 1,000s of hours of development time and led to the creation of what is now one of the world’s largest businesses can now be achieved in a fraction of the time and without any prior technical knowledge."
“No-code and low-code has been hugely democratising, opening up new product and service development to more people than ever before, no matter their economic background or connections. I’m pleased to say that more than half of our startups are created by under-represented founder groups. Through the SuperTech Seeds programme and thanks to the funding from GBSLEP we’re now able to give the UK’s best and brightest new product and service ideas the opportunity to see the light of day at no cost to their founders.”

The SuperTech Seeds programme is open to any UK national or British passport holder aged 16 and above. Ideas will be assessed by a panel of experts drawn from the SuperTech leadership team, with successful applicants being notified no later than the end of July.

Application must be submitted online via https://www.supertechwm.com/seeds-competition  by 5pm Monday 19 July.

Black Ocean, a liquidity-providing platform incubated by the high-frequency quantitative trading institution VRM, has announced a strategic partnership with CV Labs, a Swiss blockchain ecosystem business and incubator that provides co-working, advisory and event services for startups and corporate clients.

Black Ocean provides exchanges, funds, and institutional investors with dark pool solutions, liquidity, and order flow execution. For retail customers, Black Ocean offers DeFi services, such as an IDO launchpad, leveraged DEX trading, liquidity mining, and the NFT market.

This partnership is aimed at supporting and developing new blockchain projects and crypto startups. Black Ocean, as a part of the VRM ecosystem, will collaborate with CV Labs on various initiatives within the blockchain industry such as offering a variety of services including incubation for early-stage startups and professional-grade solutions for corporate clients.

The VRM ecosystem comprises VRM Quant, VRM Research, Black Ocean and the FLy token, the native token of VRM ecosystem. VRM is an HFT firm that launched VRM Research - direction that provides retail customers with market insights, trading signals solutions and analysis reports from the heart of high-end trading. Collaboration between VRM Research and CV Labs will include market reports, co-organizing events and seminars to training programs and mentorships.

Read more about VRM:
Website Twitter Medium

Management Call to Discuss Fiscal Year 2021 Financial Results and Business Updates for the First Quarter of Fiscal Year 2022 on July 14, 2021

Singapore: Diginex Limited (Nasdaq: EQOS), recently rebranded as EQONEX Group (“EQONEX” or the “Company”), a digital assets financial services company, today announced business updates for the first quarter ended June 30, 2021 of fiscal year 2022. 

First Quarter of Fiscal Year 2022 Business Update Highlights

·       Revenue for the first quarter was US$2.5 million, over eight times higher than revenue from the previous fiscal year of US$0.3 million 

·       The trend of revenue moved incrementally higher through the quarter from US$0.3 million for fiscal year 2021 to US$0.6 million, US$0.8 million, and US$1.1 million in April, May, and June, 2021, respectively

·       Exchange revenue for the first quarter was $2.4 million, compared to $0.2 million for the entire prior fiscal year

·       Average daily volumes on EQONEX Exchange in June 2021 were US$176.9 million, an increase from US$15.9 million in March 2021

·       Assets Under Management for Bletchley Park Asset Management were US$21 million as of July 1, 2021 compared to US$9.6 million as of March 31, 2021

·       Assets Under Custody for Digivault were US$54 million as of June 30, 2021, compared to US$11.1 million as of March 31, 2021

·       Cash and cash equivalents and liquid assets were $42.1 million as of June 30, 2021

Richard Byworth, Chief Executive Officer at EQONEX Group, said: “Fiscal year 2022 is set to be yet another transformative year for EQONEX. Throughout the past year, most of our core business lines began operations which positioned us to start the new fiscal year rapidly scaling our business. As we began the quarter, EQONEX Exchange saw explosive growth in trading volumes and was able to transition from a more incentivized fee structure to one where the vast majority our trading volumes are fee paying, resulting in substantial and sustainable revenue growth. The Exchange generated US$2.4 million in revenue during the quarter with commission rates now coming into our targeted average range of 2-4 basis points per trade.”

“Launched in April this year, the EQO token has been instrumental in driving that growth. Investors have realized that by trading on EQONEX Exchange, their profitability can be significantly enhanced due to the structure of the token. EQO, and the growth in volumes it has generated, have acted as a fly wheel for market makers and institutional clients alike in joining the platform. In the traditional financial world, we say flow begets flow, and here it is no different. As we add more participants and grow our supporting ecosystem it becomes very apparent to all stakeholders that our exchange is creating quite a differentiated profile of flow.” 

“The structural design of our ecosystem means market volatility is good for business: directional moves matter less. While the remaining parts of our business did not contribute materially to revenues yet, they are primed to do so as the year continues. Volumes, assets and revenues are all increasing as traction with our key targets of institutional clients grows. This fiscal year will no doubt be yet another transformative year for the company, and we look forward to delivering increasing value to our shareholders.”

Leading global pay provider CloudPay today announced the public launch of CloudPay NOW. The newest solution in CloudPay's extensive offerings, CloudPay NOW, addresses the financial wellness pressures of today's employee pay experiences. CloudPay NOW enables multinational organizations to offer earned wage access in advance of payday through a global technology solution. As the first earned wage access solution that can be deployed globally, CloudPay NOW has already won a prestigious CODiE™ award and was field-tested across 12 countries by one of the world's leading premium lifestyle brands.

Global industry analyst Josh Bersin highlighted the growing need for more flexible pay options in a recent research report. On-demand pay – also known as earned wage access – enables workers to tap into their own pay balance as early as the day it is earned. In direct contrast to existing credit card debt and payday loans that charge steep fees, this real-time pay system reduces financial stress for employees. With CloudPay NOW, employers can better retain workers, increase engagement and improve employees' financial wellbeing.

"Workers in every country face increasing pressure from financial stress. That's why CloudPay is expanding its offerings to help employers better position themselves to attract global talent in a competitive job market," said Josep Elias, CloudPay's chief strategy officer. "Employee pay is more than just a paycheck — it's about access, control and most importantly, flexibility. CloudPay NOW enables companies to deploy on-demand earned wage access as a global benefit to support employee wellbeing and retention."

Bersin refers to earned wage access as "The ATM for your pay." CloudPay NOW allows employees to access their wages on any device as needed, with complete data privacy. CloudPay NOW is fully integrated with CloudPay's global payroll and treasury solutions, allowing CloudPay to deploy this new earned wage access product across 130+ countries.

For employees, the CloudPay NOW mobile app includes real-time multi-language support and resources to empower them to take control of their finances, reduce financial stress and make informed decisions about their pay.

"As a leader in global pay, it was important that we take the time necessary to deliver an earned wage access solution with the same robust qualities our clients expect," said Paul Bartlett, CloudPay's chief executive officer. "The expectations of workers have changed significantly in the last year, making CloudPay NOW a benefit that every global employer needs to offer."

• FICO Platform operationalizes predictive models and scores to deliver fairest customer experience and help borrowers manage debt repayments
• Between 20,000 and 40,000 decisions rules implemented per country, starting with Germany and UK
• Hoist makes 1 million customer decisions a day using FICO® Platform
• Phase two will deliver a further €8.5m (£7.4m) in annual staff savings as lending book grows 40 percent

Hoist Finance, the consumer debt purchaser working with banks and financial institutions across Europe, has accelerated its digital transformation using the FICO® Platform. By rolling out a centralized approach to managing decisions on customers, Hoist has improved the customer experience, streamlined operations and sped up the process of change. Hoist Finance is now making 1 million real-time decisions each day in the UK and Germany using FICO technology — including FICO® Blaze Advisor® decision rules management system, part of the FICO Platform — to establish the best actions for borrowers.

For its achievements, Hoist and FICO have won the Best Use of Technology category in the Credit Excellence Awards 2021.

Centralizing Decisions on a Single Platform

Hoist Finance manages 18 million accounts across 10 countries, and before working with FICO customer decisions were managed using 14 different systems. Hoist sought to unify decisioning technology across all regions, deploy new strategies faster, and improve results through testing and simulation. It also wanted to make better decisions by calling on multiple external data sources and using advanced predictive models and AI. 

“We have hit all of our key targets with FICO Blaze Advisor,” said Fabian Zwanzig, head of operations for Germany, Hoist Finance. “This solution has delivered game-changing results for the business, with a clear path now plotted for extensive, future benefits. We have exceeded the targets in our business case by 400 percent.” 

Hoist Finance is currently live with the FICO® Platform’s rules management system in Germany and the UK, with five more countries due to go online in the next few months. Each country involves some 20,000-40,000 rules that are automated in the FICO Platform. The solution automates customer engagement and negotiation processes, enabling Hoist to resolve 20 percent of cases automatically at the group level, and 33 percent of cases in the UK. The platform operationalizes predictive models and scores and provides multiple, simultaneous challenger strategies.

Results include:

• 30% increase in data-driven, digital payment plans
• 87% decrease in plan breakage rate
• 97% lower carbon footprint for each digital resolution, resulting in annual savings of 442 tons of carbon for every 10% increase in digital collections – the amount of carbon that 35.3 people in the UK generate in a year

Further Collections Success

In addition, Hoist Finance used FICO’s collections technology to standardize its approach across countries, with seven countries using it so far.  

“It is central to our business proposition that we deliver the best possible customer experience for our bank clients’ customers,” added Zwanzig. “We also wanted to improve profitability by standardizing our collections approach across the company. It was, therefore, essential to find a scalable system that works 24/7, 365 days a year. FICO’s technology put us in position to streamline operations and standardize our approach, whilst maintaining best-in-class standards for the borrower experience. We expect to deliver a further €8.5 million in operational efficiencies as our debtor book grows 40 percent in phase two.”

“FICO’s Decision Requirement Analysis Workshop (DRAW) process was key to structuring Hoist’s decision requirements to help achieve its goals,” added Steve Hadaway, vice president and general manager for FICO in EMEA. “Through this process, we turned their needs into a comprehensive set of structured decisions. And by standardizing on a single platform, Hoist has rolled out the technology to new countries in just three months. Their multi-country, platform approach is the future of collections.”

The FICO® Platform unleashes the power of analytics and AI to enable smarter business decisions at scale. Enterprises using the FICO Platform are more ready to offer superior customer experiences because they can get to know their customers deeply and offer services and value that delights the individuals. FICO was named a leader by Forrester Research in The Forrester Wave™: Digital Decisioning Platforms, Q4 2020.

The Bank of England’s latest Financial Stability Report, released this week, points to the particular vulnerability of the SME sector as the economy emerges from COVID-19 restrictions.

The twice-yearly reports, compiled by the Bank’s Financial Policy Committee, sounded a warning about increased corporate indebtedness, in particular amongst smaller firms with weaker balance sheets.

SUMMARY

- Insolvencies will increase as government support unwinds

- The reinstatement of Winding-up Petitions in September will be significant

- The end of VAT and Rent Deferrals could be a catalyst for business distress

“As the economy recovers and government support unwinds as planned, some businesses may face additional pressure on their cash flow and insolvencies could increase.

For example, businesses may face substantial repayments as VAT and rent deferrals begin to lapse, costs could increase as broader government support such as the CJRS unwinds, and businesses that have borrowed under government support schemes will need to start making repayments on them. Additionally, the end of the temporary ban on winding up petitions in September 2021 is likely to lead to an increase in insolvencies over the next twelve months.”

Bank of England Financial Stability Report, July 2021

UK Business Sectors in Distress

Sectors ‘that are more affected by economic activity being curtailed’ find themselves in particular jeopardy, the report notes.

Bank staff analysis demonstrates that as of January 2021, 11.8% of SMEs in these sectors are already in arrears on their outstanding loans or have formally defaulted

https://www.companydebt.com/articles/bank-of-england-warns-of-sme-debt-vulnerablity/

Exactpro, a leading independent provider of software testing services for mission-critical financial technology, will launch its subsidiaries in Lithuania and Sri Lanka in 2021.

Commenting on the decision, Alexey Zverev, co-CEO and co-founder of Exactpro, says: "It has been a great honour for Exactpro to serve its clients worldwide for more than a decade. The past and future growth of our software testing delivery centres in Europe and Asia is an example of our commitment to being responsive to our clients' needs, including the need to have the presence of their trusted software testing partner in optimal geopolitical locations."

According to Doing Business 2020, a World Bank Group flagship publication, Lithuania ranks 11th out of 190 countries evaluated for ease of doing business. It also came 15th out of 178 countries ranked by The Heritage Foundation in its 2021 Index of Economic Freedom. The country boasts a young and talented labour pool, a business-friendly environment, a great quality-to-cost ratio, a world-class infrastructure, and a perfect living pace. Lithuania's focus on tech education helps it to further build its reputation as a highly attractive location for global tech businesses. 

Sri Lanka with its attractive and pro-business environment is a pivotal global centre for doing business. Its sophisticated and transparent regulatory and legal framework offers safety of foreign investments. Several open-market free economic and trade policies as well as bilateral investment protection agreements with many countries makes Sri Lanka's economy one of the most liberalized in South Asia. According to a recent “Sri Lanka IT-BPM Industry: State Of The Industry 2019/20” report by PwC and Sri Lanka Association for Software Services Companies (SLASSCOM), the IT-BPM industry has been a key contributor within the Sri Lanka’s service export segment and “accounts for over 90% local value addition, delivering world-class IT products and knowledge services.” As Island of Ingenuity, a general audience website owned by the Sri Lankan Export Development Board, puts it: “From electric supercars to powering one of the most active stock exchanges in the world, Sri Lankan businesses are at the forefront of technological innovation.”

"Our research and prior experience of Exactpro staff working in Sri Lanka during business assignments show that the country is one of the best places in South Asia to conduct business. The country has many highly qualified professionals with extensive experience in many fields, including ICT, a fast-developing infrastructure, and a great quality of life. This makes Sri Lanka a natural choice for us to expand our operations into the region and be closer to a few of our key clients", says Iosif Itkin, co-CEO and co-founder of Exactpro.

Currently employing over 650 specialists, Exactpro is proud to have been able to attract and retain a team of experienced and talented specialists and looks forward to continuing the delivery of its services to clients out of both the existing and new locations.