Pollinate, the global fintech that partners with banks to help business customers succeed and grow, is launching “Ingenious,” a filmmaker competition spotlighting small businesses, in collaboration with Mastercard. “Ingenious” will celebrate the ingenuity of small business owners around the globe through stories of how small businesses have used technology to drive forward during the pandemic. Ahead of ‘Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSME) Day’, an annual day of observance on 27 June initiated by the United Nations (UN), “Ingenious” will launch today in 31 countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States and others.  

The past 18 months have been especially challenging for small businesses – the waves of COVID disruption, economic slowdown and community crises have disproportionately impacted them. But many have responded with great agility, transforming from a local shop to a local delivery service or making masks, not mugs, or sanitiser, not sangria. They’ve connected with the needs of their community in new ways – as local businesses are built to do. This competition, sponsored by Pollinate, will showcase how reinvention, reimagination, reconnection and entrepreneurship have enabled small businesses to succeed.

To support the small businesses featured in these films, Mastercard will provide free access to tools, education and insights to each of the businesses to empower them to thrive even beyond the pandemic. Filmmakers that enter also have the chance to win one of six global prizes for the best films, ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 USD, and four $3,000 USD prizes for the films that best showcase the themes of Get Paid, Get Capital, Get Digital and Loyal to Local.*

“We’re extremely passionate about SMEs and honoured to work with global banks and partners that feel the same way,” says Alastair Lukies CBE, CEO and Founder, Pollinate. “Small businesses are the beating heart of the economy, and it’s been incredible to watch them quickly switch course and continue to thrive despite being some of the worst-hit businesses by the pandemic. The entrepreneurial spirit is so central to SMEs around the world and we continue to see it transformed and reimagined every day. Our partnership with Mastercard has created a powerful alliance that is committed to empowering every small business, and we’re excited to be working on this campaign together to celebrate both that partnership, and the amazing small businesses that fuel their local communities.”

“Small business owners have been role models throughout the pandemic, showing us what it looks like to get knocked down, to struggle, to pivot and to persevere – and for some, they are emerging  stronger than before,” says Andrea Gilman, Global SME Segment Lead, Mastercard. “We are thrilled to continue demonstrating our commitment to this vital community and partner with Pollinate to empower small businesses everywhere to learn from and be inspired by each other’s stories of resilience.”

Though many small businesses have been forced to shutter their doors or adapt business models to sell online during the pandemic, entrepreneurs and business owners still see opportunities every day to reimagine, refresh and reinvent. This campaign celebrates those who take risks and chase their dreams, and it is only the beginning of this shared journey to shine a light on the ingenuity of entrepreneurs around the world.

Pollinate will be hosting the “Ingenious” competition from 25 June – 6 August, 2021 during which filmmakers have an opportunity to capture inspiring small business stories in their communities.

To learn more about the competition and where filmmakers can submit their short films, visit https://news.mstr.cd/2RIOU7z.

Joshua Scigala, CEO of the TheStandard.io, a new DeFi lending protocol and Founder of the bitcoin/gold exchange, Vaultoro said,

 “Right now, the vast majority of money laundering is done in fiat currency, because it's anonymous. Cryptocurrency like bitcoin will be used more for financial crime in the future, but detection of those crimes will come back to good old fashioned police work rather than simply following the money. Why? Because blockchains are becoming more and more private to a point where following it will be impossible. This is actually a positive thing, because it's dangerous that strangers can tell how much money you have; having no financial privacy leads to kidnappings and business competitors knowing someone's sources and markups. This is why financial transactions need to stay private. In the future, police forces will have to devote more resources to chasing these kind of crimes as tracing funds will become harder.”

Kirill Suslov, CEO of trading app, TabTrader, said,

“Bitcoin has one of the most sophisticated forensics services among all other crypto, making it ideal for tracking an illicit usage. National risk assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing performed by the Home Office showed that cash is a high risk for money laundering and terrorist financing, while cryptoassets are low-to-medium. So cash seizures should really make the headlines, not cryptocurrencies.”

Nivaura, a London and Italy based Fintech, has delivered the technology underpinning Singapore-based DBS Bank’s groundbreaking bond issuance platform. This is the world's first end-to-end workflow platform that spans across a bank’s entire supply chain from all internal functions and systems to external clients.

The new DBS platform enables its origination, syndicate, legal, operations and sales desks to easily communicate and share complex transactional information to manage the end-to-end flow of transaction data and documentation.  It also powers key external facing interfaces and digital tools that enable issuers, investors and service providers (such as listing and paying agents) to have machine-to-human or machine-to-machine interactions. One of the exciting new services, which is a direct consequence of the end-to-end automation enabled by this platform, is the “1-click drawdown” feature that enables fast and easy direct issuance.

Nivaura configured and deployed its core workflow digitisation and automation technology, Aurora, to meet DBS’s specific needs. Nivaura’s technology also underpins London Stock Exchange Group’s Flow, a multi-dealer EMTN SaaS marketplace that went live earlier this year and was leveraged in the LSEG MTN multi-tranche, multi-currency, syndicated $7bn eq. issuance.

This DBS platform has been deployed on-premises, which enables DBS as a regulated entity to fully manage complex compliance requirements, as well as to ensure the platform can be used for high volume transaction flow and seamless interaction with internal services. 

The DBS deployment also enables complete transaction life-cycle management for direct issuance to the bank’s own clients; and the data can be fed into tokenization services to enable registration and settlement on a blockchain, as is the case for DBS's digital token exchange.

The DBS platform utilises General-purpose Legal Mark-up Language (GLML), a human-readable mark-up language pioneered by Nivaura in conjunction with a number of global law firms and infrastructure service providers. GLML is designed to be used by lawyers or other professionals with zero software programming experience to set up documents for digitisation and automation.

Clifford Lee, Global Head of Fixed Income, DBS, said: “The time is ripe for traditional ways of bond origination to make way for a more digital approach, to do what has been aspired for so long – by taking the first step towards the creation of an independent platform that allows bond issuers efficient and effective direct access to the market place and bond investors. The FIX Marketplace marks the first step in this ambitious journey to democratise the capital markets for better transparency and broader financial inclusion. This can only be done effectively in consultation and collaboration with market players and participants, including arrangers, issuers, investors, lawyers, auditors and clearing houses. Through this collective effort, we can enhance the capabilities and features of the FIX Marketplace to best transform the market for the better.”

The DBS platform has already been endorsed by issuers such as Keppel Corp, which cited the ability to respond swiftly to market opportunities with self-executable offerings as a real differentiator. It has also been welcomed by DBS’s investor clients, with Phillip Securities suggesting that easier and faster access to commercial paper allows investors to realise higher returns over short-term funding.

Dr. Avtar Singh Sehra, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nivaura commented: “Nivaura is honoured to have worked closely with DBS in bringing this groundbreaking digital bond issuance platform to life. We believe this world’s first will accelerate interest in the digitalisation and automation paradigm for capital markets.  Issuers want to cut complexity, time and cost out of primary market transactions - and dealers realise they need to lead on this. In addition, dealers don’t want to be locked into centralised marketplace platforms for all their transaction needs. Dealers are keen to directly interact with their clients and provide the range of capital markets services they can offer through a single digital “shop front” which they control.”

Over the last five years Nivaura has taken a leading role in bringing efficiency to the primary markets, and through its active dialogue with regulators and capital markets participants, it has driven key innovations in digitalisation and automation. Nivaura is continuing to work with the industry to refine its fully flexible technology, which is an easily adaptable whitelabel solution for capital markets participants to configure seamless digital journeys for their clients. This also enables a bank’s clients to try innovations in a controlled environment in parallel with modes of operating that they are accustomed to - for example issuing traditional and tokenised securities through a single and seamless digital platform. 

The inaugural meeting of The Senior Leaders ESG Forum brought together a group of leading wealth management firms to discuss the opportunities and challenges associated with ESG investing. 

The forum was chaired by Compeer, the benchmarking and research firm, and hosted in conjunction with Objectway, a leading digital wealth & asset management software provider. 

Participating firms were a broad and diverse representation of the wealth management industry including Quintet, Punter Southall Wealth, Quilter Cheviot, Goodbody and Killik. Presentations made by Compeer, Objectway and Macfarlanes, a leading law firm, provided insights and helped guide a wide-reaching discussion.

Key points arising from the discussion included:

• Aligning ESG philosophy, investment strategy and data is crucial if firms are to avoid greenwashing.
• Regulation is expected to drive and ultimately define the delivery of ESG to clients.
• Client reporting is a complex challenge due to lack of standardisation of ESG-related data.

The forum discussion centred on the state of ESG readiness in wealth management as well as the following:

• What are the key business objectives to consider when forming an ESG strategy?
• How have client expectations around ESG evolved during the pandemic?
• What could the ESG regulatory journey look like?

The question of how to avoid greenwashing will become more prevalent as firms develop their ESG proposition.  Beyond best intentions, they should look to safeguard themselves through portfolio transparency and utilise suitability reviews to gain a clear and meaningful understanding of client ESG preferences.

Considerations around client preferences and data quality are imperative as firms adapt their client reporting function to uphold the requirements of upcoming ESG regulations.  They acknowledge technology has an important role to play in dealing with the complexities in a consistent and cost effective manner.

Based on the discussions there is a clear need for definitions and rules on ESG from the regulator. 

All eyes are on the FCA to see whether they will follow in the footsteps of the EU or carve a different regulatory path. Recent changes to MiFID II and SFDR have not made it clear what is expected from wealth managers and advisers in the UK. The consensus among wealth managers is that while client demand is bringing attention to ESG, ultimately, regulation is what will drive and shape their ESG offering. The input of the FCA and dialogue with firms would be greatly valued and will be consequently sought at future meetings of the forum. 

The useful insights emerged during this inaugural meeting have been collected in a short research paper available for download HERE.

The Senior Leaders ESG Forum will continue to serve as a platform for wealth management firms to exchange ideas, shape thought leadership and help define industry best practise. 

Compeer and Objectway will host quarterly meetings with a research led focus covering ESG and other emerging relevant topics in further detail. 

For further information and comment, please contact:

• Compeer: Bhaven Patel (bhaven.patel@compeer.co.uk)
• Objectway: Tariq Khan (tariq.khan@objectway.com)
• Macfarlanes: Shailen Patel (shailen.patel@macfarlanes.com)

ACI’s incremental learning technology—part of its award-winning merchant fraud management solution—recognized as “Artificial Intelligence Project of the Year”

ACI Worldwide, a leading global provider of real-time electronic payment and banking solutions, has been recognized by Retail Systems Awards 2021 for its innovative approach to using machine learning to detect and prevent fraud. In the category “Artificial Intelligence Project of the Year,” ACI was honored for how it enhances machine learning models with incremental learning.

Incremental learning technology represents a considerable advancement over the traditional approach to using machine learning in merchant fraud prevention, where models need to be “re-trained” as fraud patterns change. Models using incremental learning make small adjustments on an ongoing basis to ensure they remain relevant; especially important as fraudsters become more sophisticated, but also as genuine consumer behavior changes over time. The use of incremental learning also allows the model to change itself in production when new behaviors are observed, meaning that fraud prevention strategies can be self-evolving.

Since launching in early 2020, ACI has carried out extensive testing and analysis of the performance of incremental learning in a live production setting, and has seen higher performance in fraud detection and improved ability to detect new threats. The technology underpinning incremental learning is currently in the final stages of patent approval.

“Fraud is evolving more rapidly than ever, so the tools used to detect and prevent it need to be highly adaptable and responsive to emerging threats,” said Debbie Guerra, executive vice president – merchant solutions, ACI Worldwide. “It’s an honor for our talented fraud and data science teams to receive this recognition from Retail Systems, and proof that our approach – combining modern and market-oriented machine learning with a multi-tiered fraud strategy – is helping payment providers and merchants to gain the upper hand in the fight against fraud.”

This latest recognition reinforces ACI Worldwide’s global leadership position in real-time fraud management for merchants. Its offering is available as a standalone solution, or integrated alongside ACI Secure eCommerce and ACI Omni-Commerce.

FinTech companies Deposit Solutions and Raisin have announced the completion of their merger. After over a year of preparation, the two companies are forming Raisin DS, a pioneer in the savings and investment market, servicing banks and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic. The merger only needs to be registered in the commercial register.

Deposit Solutions is the leading B2B Open Banking platform in the savings deposit space. The company operates deposit marketplaces for over 150 partners, including large institutions such as Deutsche Bank, and connects them with deposit-taking banks from all across Europe. Raisin is the leading pan-European B2C platform for savings and investments. Raisin’s marketplaces offer consumers simple access to competitive deposit products from all across Europe. In Germany, the FinTech company also offers globally diversified, cost-effective ETF portfolios and ETF-based pension products. 

As Raisin DS, both companies will now be able to unite the best-in-class B2B offering and Europe’s leading B2C savings marketplaces under one roof.

A union to further democratize access to savings and investments

By joining forces, Deposit Solutions and Raisin are maximising the benefits for all market participants. For savers, the merger means more product choice and decision power, incumbent banks will benefit from more implementation options and product access for their own marketplaces, and deposit-taking banks will receive better access to deposit funding. 

“Deposit Solutions and Raisin have brought important innovations to a market that has been underserved for decades. Together we can achieve even more," said Dr. Tim Sievers, CEO and founder of Deposit Solutions. “By uniting Deposit Solutions and Raisin, we’re transforming two German innovation leaders into the European champion with global ambitions."

“Raisin DS is breaking down barriers and reinforcing our long-time vision for a single transparent market for savings and investment products. We want to contribute to a financial system that better serves day-to-day financial needs of people and enables banks to provide a stronger backbone to the real economy,”added Dr. Tamaz Georgadze, CEO and co-founder of Raisin. “We will continue to strive to make a positive contribution to the financial system.”

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, announced the general availability of Quartz™ for Markets, designed to help Market Infrastructure Institutions (MIIs) such as exchanges, depositories, central banks, payment infrastructures, private banks, custodians and issuers, offer end-to-end next generation services around tokenized securities, and drive their future growth.

Quartz for Markets builds on TCS’ position as the largest independent software provider to MIIs, with its proven TCS BaNCS for Market Infrastructure and Custody solutions powering the operations of over 50 market-critical institutions across 66 countries. The new solution helps MIIs leverage blockchain technology to offer next-generation services around tokenized securities, such as KYC/AML, token issuance, order management, matching, atomic settlement, crypto custody, digital asset servicing, general meeting services and trade surveillance.

The new solution provides out-of-the-box support for multiple asset classes, including equity, fixed income, warrants, and asset-backed tokens like real estate, gold, art, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as well as loyalty points. Investors can benefit from a choice of settlement in fiat currencies, cryptocurrencies, stable coins and digital currencies, thus gaining from both liquidity and flexibility.

Quartz for Markets is available on-premise as well as on cloud, and has been designed for easy integration and interoperability with existing core platforms and third-party solutions. It can work with public as well as private blockchain platforms and supports multiple token standards such as ERC and R3 Token SDKs. The solution includes an intuitive, low code development kit, with which it can be extended to meet the MII’s future needs. Four MII’s have already signed up for Quartz for Markets, and deployment is currently underway.

“Tokenization democratizes access to assets by turning material as well as digital assets into tokens that can be traded at a fraction of the current cost. This represents an opportunity for MIIs to launch innovative new services around tokenized assets, attract new classes of investors and drive growth,” said R Vivekanand, Global Head, Quartz, TCS. “Quartz for Markets is a robust, secure and future-proof solution that can support the end-to-end transaction life cycle and instant settlement for a wide range of tokenized assets, including NFTs, which are gaining in popularity and value. We have leveraged our contextual knowledge and extensive industry experience in capital markets to design a solution that seamlessly serves the needs of a broad spectrum of market players and accelerates their growth and transformation journeys.”

FV Bank, a licensed digital bank and digital asset custodian has announced today it has inked a deal with Fireblocks (www.fireblocks.com), an award winning platform for securing digital assets. FV Bank will be leveraging Fireblocks unique MPC-based wallet and network infrastructure to support the introduction of its digital asset custody services which will seamlessly be integrated within FV Bank’s online banking for its international customers. FV Bank is the one of the few banks which has a banking license and digital asset custody licenses which will enable FV Bank to offer new services inside a vertically integrated and regulated bank service offering. 

"It is very important that our offerings take advantage of the industry's leading digital asset management infrastructure solution as we move to prove banks can compete and lead in the convergence of digital assets management and fiat based accounts," said Miles Paschini, CEO at FV Bank. "Selecting Fireblocks' wallet infrastructure gives us a competitive edge as it will enable us to securely and rapidly deploy a groundbreaking offering from a regulated international bank.  We also are committed to provide insurance over our clients assets under management, Fireblocks secure infrastructure has gained the confidence of insurers allowing us to offer a bank grade solution to the marketplace."

For FV Bank, leveraging Fireblocks’ MPC wallet infrastructure and being able to streamline liquidity settlements using our own proprietary FVNet in combination with the Fireblocks Network guarantees the best possible experience for our account holders. By leveraging Fireblocks, we will be able to scale and quickly enhance and add new products to our service offering which are unprecedented in a regulated bank.

“FV Bank’s integration of the Fireblocks platform brings us a step closer in our effort to enable secure digital asset adoption among traditional financial institutions,” said Michael Shaulov, CEO of Fireblocks. “FV Bank's institutional customers can now securely interact with digital assets at an enterprise level and experience the full benefits of crypto finance with industry leading transaction speeds and the highest levels of operational security.”