The Chartered Body Alliance today launched their first joint qualification, the Certificate in Climate Risk , to help financial services professionals pass the “Carney Test”.

Mark Carney, the former Bank of England Governor, COP 26 finance adviser and United Nations special envoy, made it a key objective of his Building a private finance system for net zero strategy “to ensure that every professional financial decision takes climate change into account”.

To meet this objective, referred to as the “Carney Test”, the Chartered Body Alliance developed the Certificate in Climate Risk to give financial services professionals the opportunity to develop the expertise required to manage climate risks and identify the challenges and opportunities from the transition to net zero.

Professionals who complete the Certificate will be capable of examining the challenges in measuring, monitoring, and reporting climate risks using the data available.

Successful candidates will be able to outline common approaches to modelling climate risks, including the use of scenario analysis, and examine regulatory approaches and responses at global, regional, and national levels.

They will be able to explore defining, developing, articulating, and embedding climate risk appetite, governance and culture and be capable of discussing the opportunities for the financial services sector to support the transition to a sustainable, low carbon world.

To achieve the Certificate in Climate Risk, professionals will need to complete a one-and-a-half-hour online examination, consisting of 75 multiple choice questions.

To prepare them for the test, professionals will receive an online study guide for core reading and learning activities, interactive eLearning modules, plus online quizzes, and knowledge checks to embed their understanding of key concepts.

By developing the Certificate in Climate Risk as a first step, the Chartered Body Alliance, who are composed of around 200,000 individuals working across financial services, is demonstrating the key role it can play in establishing the standards, norms, values, and practices to develop the capability and capacity of the finance sector globally.

Simon Thompson, CEO of the Chartered Banker Institute, commented: “Recognising the need for ambitious and urgent climate action, the three leading UK-based, global professional bodies forming the Chartered Body Alliance: the Chartered Banker Institute, the Chartered Insurance Institute and the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment have developed the Certificate in Climate Risk, and accompanying study materials, to lead the upskilling and reskilling of finance and risk professionals globally."

“This is the first time we have developed a joint qualification in this way, and we are proud to work together, in the public interest, to play our part in tackling our greatest global challenge.”

Simon Culhane, Chartered FCSI, CEO of the CISI added: “This new Certificate in Climate Risk is testament to the effectiveness of the unity which can be achieved for our financial services profession by the Chartered Body Alliance. Ahead of the UK hosting the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow in November this year, the focus for global financial services practitioners - for themselves, their clients, and their firms - is to ensure their knowledge and skills are current and reflective of market and societal developments. Our Certificate in Climate Risk is an important part of this educational initiative.”

Sian Fisher, CEO of the Chartered Insurance Institute, further added: “Managing climate-related risks and supporting the transition to a low carbon world is one of the most significant challenges facing the world today.

“This qualification from the Chartered Body Alliance will develop the capacity and capability of finance and risk professionals globally in this key area to ensure they can help consumers and corporate clients make financial decisions that include the consideration of climate change.”

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the premier market infrastructure for the global financial services industry, today announced the launch of its new Underwriting Central (UWC) platform, an automated service for electronic Certificates of Deposit (CD) offered by DTCC’s subsidiary, The Depository Trust Company (DTC).

The new, digital UWC platform provides a paperless process for the delivery of CDs, increasing efficiency through automation, improving data quality, reducing risk, and providing greater transparency into the eligibility life cycle. It also represents an important step in bringing the industry closer to achieving full dematerialization.

With DTC’s new UWC platform, issuers can now streamline the underwriting process, seamlessly creating, signing, and delivering CDs within hours, instead of days or weeks. The new platform leverages electronic vaulting technology to transmit and store data, as well as an e-signature process to execute digital certificates, providing enhanced automation for CD eligibility and issuance processing, and ultimately providing more seamless delivery of these assets to the accounts of end clients.

The launch of the new electronic CD platform comes following a successful pilot with nearly 30 underwriters, including BNY Mellon Capital Markets, LLC., Fidelity Capital Markets and Multi-Bank Securities, Inc., as well as more than 50 issuers from regional branches based across the U.S., including BLC Community Bank (Little Chute, WI) and Luana Savings Bank (Luana, IA).

“The new electronic CD capability reduces the risk of potential disruptions in the physical transport and in-person delivery receipt of CDs, all challenges that were amplified during the shift to remote working as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Ann Marie Bria, DTCC Executive Director, Asset Services Business Management.  “This new paperless process eliminates shipping costs and manual processes and the risk of closing delays for the issuer.”

The delivery of the UWC platform is part of DTCC’s larger effort to fully dematerialize all physical securities to create a more cost-effective, secure and efficient marketplace, as outlined in a whitepaper delivered to the industry last year.

“Thanks to a significant collaborative effort with our clients, we are now one step closer to achieving full dematerialization,” added Ann Bergin, DTCC Managing Director and General Manager, Wealth Management Services and Asset Services. “Having a robust, automated process with fewer operational touchpoints is already introducing major benefits to our clients, including increased transparency, cost savings, improved resiliency, and lower risk.”

In addition to this effort and in support of dematerialization, DTCC is also working on 

efforts to address other paper-based asset classes at their issuance, such as Corporate Debt, as well as existing securities that are eligible at DTC. Today, less than 1% of assets serviced through the depository arestill in physical form, but they represent $700 billion dollars in value.

Masthaven Bank has today announced that it has moved from its previous London office to two new sites: one new office in London and one in Reading. The new office openings come as the bank embarks upon a more flexible working model.

As lockdown restrictions continue to ease, Masthaven’s employees have elected to move to a more hybrid work model that involves a mixture of remote and office working. The new London office keeps Masthaven connected to the City, while the Reading office provides another key hub for staff and gives employees more options about where they work.

The two office sites will help reduce unnecessary travel, cutting down Masthaven’s carbon footprint, and also provide much-needed space for the bank’s growing workforce. Masthaven has added over fifty new employees since the start of the pandemic last year to cope with growing demand from borrowers.

Leigh Bartlett, CEO of Masthaven said:

“The opening of our two new offices demonstrates our commitment to supporting our growing team and allowing them to work in the way that’s best and safest for them. Despite the upheaval of the pandemic, and the mass move to homeworking, our team has handled the challenges of the last year brilliantly, working hard to support both customers and brokers.

“It’s clear though that, even as the pandemic restrictions begin to ease, life for many of us is going to be very different from the pre-2020 status quo. All businesses are going to need to adapt to a new era of working.

“We will still maintain a base in London to cater for colleagues in the capital and ensure we’re in the best location for London-based customers and brokers. Reading is also an important hub for the bank and our new office there will be an easier commute for many of our staff.”

Masthaven’s new office addresses are: 15-18 Rathbone Place, London, W1T 1HU and 9 Greyfriars Road, Reading, RG1 1NU.

 Acronis, a global leader in cyber protection and Saracens today announced the Official Cyber Protection Partnership which will be supported by global cloud distributor, Pax8, the best place for IT professionals to buy cloud products.

Acronis will deliver innovative cyber protection solutions to ensure that Saracens’ data, applications, and systems are secure, authentic, and easily accessible, thus minimising the risk of downtime or disruptions to the team’s daily operations. Acronis’ technology and solutions are designed around a principle known as the Five Vectors of Cyber Protection, providing Safety, Accessibility, Privacy, Authenticity, and Security (SAPAS) for all workloads.

Acronis Cyber Protect, an innovative solution that natively integrates cybersecurity with data protection, will provide the team with increased automation and productivity, including cloud enhancements, backup reports, and antivirus and antimalware protection. The team is one-step ahead of their competitors with Acronis products, decreasing cyber risk and simplifying deployment, configuration, and management tasks.

“We are excited to join Acronis in the partnership with Saracens,” said Phylip Morgan, Chief Channel Officer at Pax8 UK. “Our technology marketplace will make it easy for Saracens to manage their IT solutions that help protect against ransomware and cyberattacks, and therefore offer a world-class experience.”

Acronis will also work with the Saracens teams to deliver player career tracking using Machine Intelligence (MI), the next generation advancement inartificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML).

“We are proud to welcome Saracens to our #CyberFit Sports family. Saracens’ dedication to data protection and cybersecurity aligns with our goals to provide the best-in-class cyber protection to high-performing teams around the world. Together with Pax8, as Acronis Delivery Partner, we are committed to delivering the most innovative technology and support, helping Saracens realise its #CyberFit potential,” said Ronan McCurtin, Acronis VP Europe, Turkey and Israel.

The partnership will officially commence at the start of the 2021/22 campaign for three years until at least the end of 2023/24, however their logo featured on the Saracens kit during the second leg of the Greene King IPA Championship Play-Off Final against Ealing Trailfinders on Sunday 20th June, which confirmed their promotion back to the Gallagher Premiership.

Acronis, who are involved with a number of the leading sports brands across the most competitive professional organisations around the world, will feature prominently on the sleeve of the Saracens Men’s and Women’s kits, with their logo on the brand new jerseys for the 21/22 season.

Lucy Wray, Saracens CEO is delighted to welcome Acronis and Pax8 to the Saracens family: “We’re thrilled to have announced another new partner and signed a partnership with Acronis for the next three years. Technical innovation and research & development are both very important to us. We are excited that they will not only help us protect our data moving forward but, also, in working with their staff and affiliates, aid us as we move into new and unchartered waters. We both share similar values to constantly drive standards in our respective areas and search for new opportunities, so we see this is a perfect match.”

Acronis #CyberFit Sports partnership portfolio consists of more than 50 teams across most major global sports leagues in motorsport, football, basketball, sailing, and handball. The programme is open to service providers who can deliver Acronis solutions on behalf of Acronis and enjoy exclusive business development opportunities and sports marketing benefits. For more information, please visit https://www.acronis.com/en-us/lp/msp-sports/  

Salerio, the post-execution trade processing solution from corfinancial, has been selected by Man Group, the global active investment management firm, to assist in their migration from the OASYS™ US securities trade processing flows to the DTCC’s Institutional Trade Processing (ITP) CTM™ (Central Trade Manager) platform.

Last year, DTCC announced that it would decommission OASYS™ on 31 October 2021.

Man Group has been automating key post-trade processes, including trade confirmation and settlement for international securities, for many years using Salerio. It was, therefore, the natural solution to manage the migrating US trade confirmation workflow.

Salerio provides seamless connectivity to DTCC’s CTM platform and Man Group was able to manage the transition of US equity trades processing via OASYS to the CTM utility without the need for vendor support.

Antonio Dos Santos, Head of London Investment Operations at Man Group, said: “We wanted to ensure the continuity of our centralised post-trade processing in light of the changes soon being introduced by the DTCC. With Salerio’s rich workflow capabilities, the transition was a simple one and we moved most of our US equity traffic over to the Salerio CTM module with ease.”

David Veal, Senior Executive – Client Solutions at corfinancial, said: “Our post-trade processing solution is intuitive, making it easy for clients like Man Group to manage their operations with confidence. During 2020, we enhanced Salerio to ensure that it fully encompasses the changes being introduced by the DTCC that allows the processing of both US and international post-trade securities through the CTM service.”

Commenting on the Federation of Small Businesses warning that SMEs face a funding gap as COVID-19 restrictions continue and financial support ends, Douglas Grant, Director of Conister, part of AIM listed Manx Financial Group, said: “As the lifeblood of the UK economy, we must continue to do all we can to protect agile and resilient SMEs who are working hard to adapt to the post-pandemic economy. However, we must remember that the UK’s SME debt burden is ballooning, and we are in serious danger of seeing a relentless flow of weak zombie-like companies falling off a loan default cliff. It is imperative that we avoid compounding this cycle by focussing solely on supporting sectors and businesses that are strong and nimble enough to adapt to the new economy and therefore continue contributing to its growth.

“At Conister we have worked tirelessly to provide access to much needed funding for SMEs and have continually fought for provisions to be guaranteed for the sector. We believe the introduction of the recovery loan scheme (RLS) will certainly help and we are pleased to see the Government look beyond the initial triage phase and instead identify, prioritise and protect our most resilient business sectors that can meaningfully contribute to the new economy.”

Slovenská sporiteľňa, the largest commercial bank in Slovakia, has chosen FICO^® Decision Optimizer to increase profitability and improve portfolio management for its cash loan portfolio. Using FICO’s advanced AI-powered optimization, the bank will develop data-driven lending strategies to systematically improve results. Slovenská sporiteľňa is part of the Erste Group, one of the largest financial services providers in Central and Eastern Europe, which serves more than 16 million customers in seven countries.

More information: https://www.fico.com/en/products/fico-decision-optimizer 

“As a digital banking leader in Slovakia we are looking forward to this cooperation,” said Zdeněk Románek, member of the Board of Directors of Slovenská sporiteľňa responsible for retail banking. “We value not only the power of the FICO optimization algorithms and software but the way they will enable our data scientists and our portfolio management team to collaborate on designing, executing and managing new strategies for the business.”

“Slovenská sporiteľňa, as the lending leader in Slovakia, is advancing the use of mathematical optimization to transform lending,” added Steve Hadaway, EMEA general manager for FICO. “This is the application of advanced data science to navigate a universe of possible strategies and identify the most successful, based on multiple constraints and objectives. For a complex lending market like the one today, optimization has become an essential tool.”

FICO^® Decision Optimizer, part of the FICO^® Platform, supports the entire lifecycle of designing, developing, executing and deploying decision optimization technology. Its advanced decision impact modelling, simulation and optimization techniques allow lenders to discover better decision strategies that balance trade-offs between cost, risk and reward, while also factoring in economic and market conditions.

Beeline telecommunications operator uses AI-based ID scanning technology Smart ID Engine to boost SIM cards sales in retail stores, on-site all over Russia. The integration of the software, developed by science-driven company Smart Engines, was conducted by Digital Economy League. Today, as part of the project, Beeline was supplied with about 12 million recognitions.

When purchasing a SIM card, the client’s registration process is quite simple: the office staff only needs to take a photo or scan the customer’s ID. Smart ID Engine SDK recognizes ID data in just a second and automatically fills in the necessary fields of the subscriber’s account form in the information system. Then, the staff has to confirm this data before entering it into the customer accounting system. 

The proprietary Smart Engines AI technology GreenOCR® provides high speed and unrivalled quality of automatic data extraction by Smart ID Engine. The highest performance is achieved due to the scientific achievements of Smart Engines researchers in the field of building new compact and energy-efficient deep neural networks. Smart ID Engine based solution works on the client premises and ensures a high security level of personal data processing, as no data of Beeline customers’ IDs is transferred to third-party sources for manual processing.

“Fast in-branch client registration does not only mean greater comfort for our customers but also increases the level of health safety during the pandemic. Integrating Smart Engines solution allows us to reduce queues onsite and provide our clients with remote sales channels service. Automatic ID scanning has minimized the time spent in half while selling a SIM card to a new subscriber,” states Igor Gerasimov, Director of Retail Management at Beeline.

“We are glad to develop the partnership with Beeline and are sure that the usage of our state-of-the-art solutions will be further expanded in the client service and support systems of the mobile operator,” says Nikita Arlazarov, Chief Financial Officer at Smart Engines.

“Automatic document scanning is a modern standard for client service. We are pleased to participate in this project for such an important customer. From now on, many Beeline clients will be able to use the enhanced service. Our company is actively working in this section, implementing the best solutions on the market,” comments Oleg Pashinin, ESM Managing Director at  Digital Economy League.

Paysend announces that the latest White Paper entitled Digital Money in a Post-covid world has been published and is available now.

Head of Branding, Alberto Macciani, digs deep into the prolific expansion of digital money over the last 12 months and demonstrates just how we will see the landscape of financial technology shift, revolutionising the way we manage our money on a daily basis.

Paysend is proud to be at forefront of this revolution and one of the leaders in financial technology and the digitisation of money movement. The team is constantly working to develop expert, key and simple money solutions that provide our 3.8+ million customer base with the ability to save time, save money and be served at best all over the world.

As one of the first Fintech to introduce global card to card transfers and connect 12 billion cards across Mastercard, Visa, China UnionPay and Alipay, the Paysend team have been reviewing what has been learnt over this year of a global pandemic? What changes need to be made in our everyday lifestyle? How Paysend can improve upon experience for our users?

The Paysend goal is to harness its resources to provide digital money solutions that make life that much easier for customers and remove any unrequited hassle. Within the White Paper, Paysend discusses how our recent experience of lockdowns, social distancing and travel bans has caused the digital world to evolve and develop new ways of working, problem-solving using financial technology to navigate our surrounding restrictions. It shows examples of the way customer behaviour has changed; everyday practices being adjusted when entering back out into the world. The care for our health and well-being of the up-most importance whilst also ensuring our finances are secure in the midst of so much uncertainty.

Forecasting for the future and Paysend’s role to play:

Since March of 2020, the Covid pandemic has sparked one of the biggest upheavals in consumer habits and forced us all to adapt. It is recognised that businesses have been put under immense pressure this year, budget cuts and furlough/employment retention schemes becoming a necessary evil to keep afloat. That is why 17,000+ small and medium businesses put their trust in Paysend to provide them with over 40 fast and hassle-free payment solutions, offering them reduced rates.