Cashflows, the platform that makes it easy for merchants to accept payments, today publishes new research revealing the impact of the pandemic on UK consumer shopping habits. The research shows a marked increase in those who say they feel motivated to buy based on ethics, however cost, quality and convenience remain the primary concerns.

More than nine in ten (91%) UK consumers say they actively seek out products with ethical affiliations and 35% are more motivated to do so now than they were before the pandemic. This rises to 45% for the key retail demographic of 18-35 year olds, and 47% for consumers within Greater London. Respondents over 56 are most likely to opt for local produce (43%) and British manufactured products (42%), whereas 18-35 year olds seek cruelty-free products (32%) and products with recycled packaging / that do not use plastic (30%). 

The research does, however, reveal a disconnect between intention and action. 39% of respondents now buy more from chains or large corporates like Amazon than they did before the pandemic, and only 11% have reduced these purchases. Independent retailers have experienced a more mixed picture - 24% of respondents say they have shopped more at independent stores whereas 23% have done so less since the pandemic began. 

Nevertheless, 62% of Brits say they enjoy buying from local providers, such as farm shops and independent retailers, compared to just 28% that enjoy buying from large corporate enterprises. This translates to spending power, as nearly three in four consumers (70%) are willing to spend up to 10% more on an item from an independent/local provider versus the same item from a chain.  

Four times as many British consumers feel guilty about purchases made via Amazon (12%) than they do about buying local (3%). 27% of respondents are proud to buy locally, compared to just 8% that associate pride with Amazon purchases

Interestingly, much of the joy of purchase was attributed to the act of buying the item itself, rather than receiving or using it. This is most true of younger generations, with 27% of 18-35s experiencing more joy when paying for an item than when opening it, using the item for the first time or sharing it with others. When questioned, more than a fifth of consumers (22%) also admitted that over the last year, they had forgotten that they had made a purchase, and were surprised when the item was delivered.

Amanda Mesler, CEO, Cashflows, comments: “Shopping has helped create joy for many Brits in the face of the boredom, frustration and sadness of the past year. While lockdown has been a cue for many to buy local and more strongly consider ethical factors, creating huge opportunity for independent retailers, the fact remains that cost, convenience and quality still reign supreme. It is therefore essential that retailers of all sizes are equipped to manage transactions across any platform or channel. The online payment process is a significant factor in this, particularly for a key target demographic of consumer retailers - 18-35 year olds. To be successful and ensure high conversion rates, merchants must provide a smooth and seamless payment experience, which adds to the joy of purchase rather than extracting from it.”

Vontobel’s structured products platform deritrade® is to be connected to the Avaloq Wealth platform. This will give Avaloq clients a direct, fully automated means of offering individual investment solutions.

Avaloq and Vontobel have formed a partnership to integrate Vontobel’s multi-issue platform deritrade® into the Avaloq Wealth platform. This integration measure is a further milestone in the strategic development of Avaloq Wealth. It combines a fully automated client advisory and wealth management process with a multi-product marketplace on a single integrated platform for the first time.

The deritrade® platform makes it possible to launch tailored structured investment products with leading issuers. Banks and wealth managers can build individual investment solutions for their clients on the platform in real time, even interactively during client meetings.

Avaloq Wealth’s cutting-edge technology enables professional investment advisers to offer their clients a highly personalized service. Thanks to the high level of automation, Avaloq’s innovative solution also significantly reduces the time spent on creating and analysing investment proposals. The platform, which was launched in 2020, is available as a standalone solution independently of Avaloq’s market-leading core banking software.

The new partnership with Vontobel rounds out Avaloq’s offering in the field of structured products. It is already active in this area with proprietary information and data solutions from Derivative Partners. The seamless integration of the two solutions on the Avaloq Wealth platform will greatly simplify the use of structured products for investment advisers, freeing up valuable time for personalized client advice.

Markus Pfister, Head of Structured Solutions & Treasury at Vontobel, said: “Our cooperation with Avaloq Wealth will give banks and wealth managers a simpler way to integrate structured products into their advisory process. The new automated suitability checks will make it easier for client advisers to use structured products – in line with their investment strategy and in a tailored way. We look forward to supporting Avaloq clients in making the right products available in the right context and at the right time.”

Santiago Schuppisser, Avaloq Group Product Manager – Wealth, said: “The wide range of products and issuers and the intuitive functionality of deritrade® are exactly what we expect of a multi-product marketplace. This partnership is in line with our mission to redefine integrated investment advice and give our clients easy access to the widest possible choice of issuers in real time.”

Initially, the new offering will be available to banks and wealth managers in Switzerland. It is intended to open up to other Avaloq clients in Europe and Asia at a later stage.

How Binance Helped Take Down a Prolific Cybercriminal Ring Responsible for Laundering over $500M in Ransomware Damages

Ransomware has become the biggest threat to online security, affecting all industries connected to the internet, from supply chains to healthcare institutions.

Therefore, a critical part of Binance’s commitment to ensuring the secure and sustainable growth of the global crypto ecosystem involves fighting different strains of ransomware and fraud. Earlier this year we released a case study on our first Bulletproof Exchanger Project, a dedicated anti-ransomware initiative where we worked with the Ukraine Cyber Police to arrest a major cybercriminal group laundering over $42M of illicit funds.

More recently Binance Security has been taking part in an international investigation with Ukraine Cyber Police, Cyber Bureau of Korean National Police Agency, US Law Enforcement, Spanish Civil Guard, and Swiss Federal Office of Police, among others, in apprehending a prolific cybercriminal ring. The group -- also known as FANCYCAT -- has been running multiple criminal activities: distributing cyber attacks; operating a high-risk exchanger; and laundering money from dark web operations and high-profile cyber attacks such as Cl0p and Petya ransomware. In all, FANCYCAT is responsible for over $500M worth of damages in connection with ransomware and millions more from other cybercrimes.

Operation FANCYCAT

Over the past year we have expanded our in-house AML detection and analytics capabilities. Based on our research and analysis, as well as our understanding of cybercriminals' history and cashout tactics, we arrived at the conclusion that the biggest security problem in the industry today is money connected to cyber attacks being laundered through nested services and parasite exchanger accounts that live inside macro VASPs, including exchanges like Binance.com. These criminals enjoy taking advantage of reputable exchanges’ liquidity, diverse digital asset offerings and well-developed APIs.

In a majority of the cases associated with illicit blockchain flows coming onto exchanges, the exchange is not harboring the actual criminal group themselves, but rather being used as a middleman to launder stolen profits. Figure 1 shows an example of the money laundering process on an exchange in relation to cyber attacks:

Blockchain analysis shows a network of money launderers living inside macro exchanges which deposit and withdraw to each other to wash the money. Understanding this diagnosis, we are taking the necessary steps to prevent illicit activity. We are applying a two-pronged approach: 1) implementing our own detection mechanisms to identify and offboard suspicious accounts 2) collaborating with law enforcement to build cases and take down criminal groups.

We applied the two-pronged approach to the FANCYCAT investigation: our AML detection and analytics program detected suspicious activity on Binance.com and expanded the suspect cluster. Once we mapped out the complete suspect network, we worked with private sector chain analytics companies TRM Labs and Crystal (BitFury) to analyze on-chain activity and gain a better understanding of this group and its attribution. Based on our analysis we found that this specific group was not only associated with laundering Cl0p attack funds, but also with Petya and other illegally-sourced funds. This led to the identification and eventual arrest of FANCYCAT.

We are continuing to investigate the FANCYCAT criminal syndicate across multiple jurisdictions and the connections associated with other cyber attacks.

Making the International Crypto Ecosystem a Safer Place

At Binance, we believe that strong controls across exchanges, smart legislation and ongoing education will help immensely with weeding out bad actors. Projects such as our “Bulletproof Exchanger” and our ongoing partnerships with law enforcement, as well as security and blockchain analytics firms, will be a driving force in improving the cybersecurity measures across the wider crypto industry.

Tinkoff announces the launch of a new program to assist startups and technology projects.

As part of the program, Tinkoff Group will become a strategic investor or partner to companies that show stable growth and have the potential to be integrated into Tinkoff’s services, product lines or its wider ecosystem.

Companies of any size are eligible for the program and its primary selection criteria is the startup or its initiatives’ potential to help the Group reach any of its objectives:

• Attracting customers into the Tinkoff ecosystem

• Monetizing new products or services 

• Implementing initiatives to attract customers into the Tinkoff ecosystem

• Developing and implementing innovative solutions to streamline intra-Group processes.

Program participants will enjoy varied forms of support from Tinkoff – from expert consulting to direct investments.

The Program also allows:

• Tinkoff to serve as a financial and engineering partner, as well as a process automation provider and payment partner.

• The Tinkoff ecosystem to be used for pilot runs to test products or business ideas

• Startups to obtain new sales channels and customers, for instance, with the help of the Tinkoff super app or Target recommendation system

• Tinkoff to purchase certain solutions from startups, become an investor, or buy the entire project and embed it into the Tinkoff ecosystem.

Konstantin Markelov, Vice President, Business Technologies:

“Tinkoff has a well-developed infrastructure for testing hypotheses and business ideas. We have always cultivated entrepreneurship among our employees and encouraged in-house startups. Our expertise has enabled us to extend our search for interesting ideas beyond the boundaries of the Group as well as to streamline the management of external teams.

We are ready to consider any startup – what is most important to us is whether we can find common ground and opportunities for mutual growth. We are ready to undertake joint initiatives, help promising teams to grow with the assistance of our ecosystem, and join forces to create something new that is of greater value than would be possible were we to work separately.

As a strategic investor, we are open to considering all initiatives that have the potential to strengthen our Group.”

Startups can apply via the website by enclosing the project’s PP briefing alongside their desired format for cooperation.

equensWorldline SE, a subsidiary of Worldline and European leader in the payments and transactional services industry, and the European Payment Council (EPC) which manages the SEPA Proxy Lookup (SPL) scheme are extending their partnership to provide the central SPL service that supports the interoperability between existing European mobile Person-to-Person (P2P) payment services.  

The SPL service has been introduced in 2019 to improve the user experience for Person-to-Person money transfers across Europe. Customers can use their mobile device to transfer money from their payment account to another individual's account across Europe without manually exchanging payment information, such as IBAN.

This service supports the interoperability between the different existing domestic mobile payment schemes and provides the option to retrieve the necessary payment details like IBAN and beneficiary name, by using well-known aliases like a mobile phone number. Besides the pure P2P payments functionality, this SPL scheme and service could also be complementary to a request to pay (RTP) functionality or to other payment use cases or schemes.

Extended functionality

Since its launch the SPL scheme has received several new functionalities like the new alias type ‘e-mail address’. Furthermore, it offers now the possibility to check if an alias exists in the current proxy network. This feature plays an important role during the onboarding process for new customers to show which of their existing personal contacts are also participating in the same payment network.

Both extensions will improve the user experience and will extend the customer reach of the existing domestic or closed-loop P2P schemes. In addition to basic P2P payments, it can also be used for more advanced features like Person-to-Professional (P2Pro) payments and bill splitting functionalities that are provided by the mobile payment applications.

European payment initiatives

The SPL service became a central component for the success of any P2P payments which are the backbone for the usage of every new payment scheme. So it is not surprising that all new European initiatives refer to the proxy lookup as one of their potential components.

For P2P and P2Pro payments the SPL service can be used to retrieve the necessary payment details and in the case of RTP it may be used to identify the consumer (payer) and his/her IBAN as the recipient of the generated payment request.

Michael Steinbach, CEO equensWorldline SE, emphasises the importance of such a proxy service for the European payment landscape. “With the usage of such a central proxy lookup service, the user experience and security of person-to-person payments  significantly improves. Furthermore, it will strongly support the usage of request-to-pay messages to improve the conversion rate for beneficiaries.”

According to Etienne Goosse, Director General of the EPC, harmonisation, competition and innovation in Europe are key to develop a dynamic pan-European payment ecosystem. “The EPC has established the SPL scheme to facilitate European cross-border P2P payments. In this process, equensWorldline has been a reliable and innovative partner during the service implementation and participated actively in the continuous improvement of the service.”

Juniper Research is pleased to announce that the 2021 Fintech & Payments Future Digital Awards are open!
Since 2008, the Future Digital Awards have been awarded to tech companies at the forefront of their respective fields: companies that deliver imaginative and innovative products or services which have the potential to disrupt their ecosystems and provide significant benefits to their target audience.
These awards aim to reward the most innovative vendors and solutions in the highly dynamic fintech & payments market, following a year of unprecedented market acceleration. This year’s Fintech & Payments Future Digital Awards cover the following categories:
Banking Innovation

• Challenger Bank of the Year - Platinum Award
• Open Banking Innovation - Platinum & Gold Awards
• Banking Platform Innovation - Platinum & Gold Awards
• Digital Bank of the Year - Platinum Award
• Banking Innovation of the Year - Platinum Award

Fintech Innovation

• Financing Platform - Platinum & Gold Awards
• Regtech Platform - Platinum & Gold Awards
• AI Platform - Platinum & Gold Awards

Fraud & Security Innovation

• AI in Fraud Prevention Innovation - Platinum & Gold Awards
• Fraud Detection and Prevention Platform - Platinum & Gold Awards
• Fraud & Security Innovation of the Year - Platinum Award

Payment Innovation

• In-vehicle Payment Innovation - Platinum & Gold
• Wearable Payment Innovation - Platinum & Gold
• Best QR Code Payment Offering - Platinum & Gold Awards
• Best Mobile Money Offering - Platinum & Gold Awards
• Best Virtual Card - Platinum & Gold Awards
• Best Digital Wallet - Platinum & Gold Awards
• Best B2B Payment Platform - Platinum & Gold Awards
• Payment Innovation of the Year - Platinum Award
• Recurring Payment Platform Innovation - Platinum & Gold

Retail Innovation

• Best Checkout Experience Solution - Platinum & Gold Awards
• Retail Innovation of the Year - Platinum Award

Judges’ Choice

While the rest of the awards focus on products, the Judges’ Choice awards assess people and companies which contribute the most to the cause of fintech & payments.
• Fintech Mover & Shaker of the Year
• The Juniper Research Award for Fintech Excellence

Entrants can apply for the awards here: https://www.juniperresearch.com/future-digital-awards/fintech-payments

Entries close on the 30th July, before being assessed by Juniper Research’s expert panel of analysts. The awards will be announced on the 28th September.

H2O.ai, a leading AI technology software company, has announced that İşbank, officially Türkiye İş Bankası, the largest private bank in Turkey, has selected H2O’s Driverless AI platform to upgrade its Income Prediction, Cash Forecasting and Check Default Prediction applications, to improve the accuracy of the bank’s business planning with on-going AI projects.

In close partnership with İşbank’s San Francisco-based innovation arm Maxitech, who is leading the initiative, İşbank has agreed to adopt the H2O Driverless AI platform after a successful project which saw: machine learning (ML) performance improvements, revenue increases and cost reductions on existing application development processes.

Ümit Bilik, Chief Data Officer, Head of Data Management & Artificial Intelligence at İşbank said: “We are delighted to have selected H2O.ai through the work with Maxitech for this important step towards empowering our AI capabilities. Our selection decision was driven by the proven creation of successful high-performance machine learning models, demonstrable efficiency improvements and H2O.ai’s technical and domain expertise.”

Andrew Morris, Senior Vice President, EMEA, H2O.ai said, “The decision by İşbank to use Driverless AI is another shining example of how a progressive-thinking finance organisation in EMEA is embracing innovative AI and ML technologies to improve the accuracy of its business planning predictions, and be even more competitive in an increasingly challenging market. We look forward to working closely with İşbank, and its innovation arm Maxitech, on the next stage of this IT business transformational initiative.”

During the initial project stage, İşbank, saw the following results: ·

Income Prediction Results:

• 8% performance increase with Automatic Machine Learning (AutoML).

Cash Forecasting Results:

• Increased revenue by optimized cash management across 4000 piloted ATMs with up to 50% reduction in cash forecast deviation
  Reduced re-training effort of models from five days to six hours

Check Default Prediction Results:

• With AutoML, a decrease in the time to develop new models from 2 months to 2.5 hours
• Teams with in-depth AI knowledge can learn/use model in shorter timeframes

In addition to the primary selection agreement by İşbank, Maxitech introduced İşbank’s software development subsidiary Softtech which is one of the leading tech companies in Turkey to H2O.ai. Both parties worked together on assessing how H2O.ai’s Driverless AI platform would enable the business unit to digitally transform its customers in the Turkish marketplace into more AI driven organisations. In 2021, Softtech strategically positions as the visionary for Automated Machine Learning Platform needs in the Turkish market.

Checkout.com, the leading payments service provider has partnered with Homebase, the UK's home and garden experts, as its new online payments provider.

Homebase, which is now live on the Checkout.com platform, selected the provider as part of its ongoing strategy for creating a seamless shopping experience for customers. Homebase.co.uk offers over 35,000 products for the home and garden, offering a range of delivery options and one-hour click and collect across its 150 stores throughout the UK and Ireland.

Thanks to the industry-leading capabilities of the Checkout.com cloud payments platform, Homebase will now be able to accept a wide range of payment methods including PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay, increasing choice, convenience and flexibility. Checkout.com’s proprietary technology also offers the most comprehensive data and reporting suite on the market. It provides the best acceptance rates and reduces declined transactions to drive revenue growth – empowering companies to seize the eCommerce opportunity.

Dave Elliott, Commercial & Marketing Director at Homebase said, “Our new website offers customers more ideas and inspiration to help them turn their ideas into reality, and partnering with Checkout.com makes shopping even easier for our customers with a wide range of payment options.”

Moshe Winegarten, Senior Vice President at Checkout.com said: “Homebase has transformed its website to offer a seamless shopping experience for their customers. We’re proud to unify that experience with a frictionless checkout process, offering a comprehensive suite of payment methods and the tools to enable an optimisation of acceptance rate to unlock more value from every transaction.”

With pandemic-related restrictions seeing consumers spend more time at home, Britons’ appetite for renovating and improving their homes and gardens has soared. Shoppers are turning to eCommerce sites to find the products they need: online sales of paint grew 47 percent year-on-year in 2020, while plants, seeds and bulbs saw a 48 percent increase*.

Platform allows wealth firms to offer a superior trading ecosystem for active self-directed investors powered by detailed, timely information and insights, making for an integrated digital experience.

Refinitiv today announced the launch of Refinitiv Active Investor for wealth managers and their customers.  Active Investor provides advanced technology along with a fully customisable look and feel that enables wealth management firms to optimise their brand identity, while giving self-directed investors looking for a more comprehensive trading platform, the flexibility to seamlessly invest their way.  

The wealth management industry is rapidly transforming, resulting in the need to dramatically improve the client experience. Against a backdrop of substantial intergenerational wealth transfer, vast quantities of data are increasingly available to investors. This has led to enormous growth in the self-directed market, and a new generation of active investors who have an urgent need for leading-edge tools and reliable data to help them manage their portfolios.
Active Investor addresses this challenge by offering features that are built with HTML5 technology to allow for a responsive design and seamless integration into one’s current experiences and apps. The solution provides enhanced flexibility, streaming content, advanced charting and analytics tools, and a ‘plug and play’ range of components, data and functionality. It can also integrate into the wealth firm’s existing order management system for efficient trade execution. Users can define the layout, capabilities and content based on a workflow that meets their style and preferences, creating a truly personalised and compelling investing experience.

Sabrina Bailey, Global Head of Wealth Management at Refinitiv, said: “In the future, we believe that wealth management firms will need to be able to meet customers at any point along their investing journey – from full service to self-service. The launch of Active Investor expands the toolset for wealth firms looking to connect with self-directed clients in a powerful and personalised way.”

Charles Smith, Head of Digital Solutions, Wealth at Refinitiv, said: “Wealth firms are focused on building personalised experiences to cater to different investor profiles. With Active Investor, we are offering a solution to help firms deliver a compelling experience to investors who require a complete self-directed platform that has market leading data, insights and all the tools active investors need.”

William Trout, Director of Wealth Management, Javelin Strategy & Research, said: “Sophisticated analytics, personalized content and an easy-to-navigate interface form the centerpiece of a modern digital proposition. Younger and active traders constitute a particularly demanding population. The Refinitiv Active Investor platform provides firms a robust and customizable means of serving the next-generation investors driving the growth of the wealth management market.”

As with all Refinitiv wealth management solutions, Active Investor offers: a holistic source of news, events and commentary, access to leading valuation content and advanced analytics, macroeconomic and market data insights, along with benefit from a wide range of data and content including alternative data, and pricing and reference data. 

Find out more information - Refinitiv Active Investor

Refinitiv Active Investor is a scalable market data and trading platform, offering a truly integrated experience for active investors who rely on detailed, accurate and timely information and insights. Refinitiv has a rich history of servicing the Wealth Management industry from front to back office. Over the last year, the firm has invested heavily in the business and is committed to bringing the most advanced solutions to the market. The ongoing transformation includes building out the firm’s solutions through strategic acquisitions such as Scivantage and the launch of Refinitiv Digital Investor. 

You want to make sure that your business's charitable donations are as tax-effective and efficient as possible. That's why we created this guide to help you navigate the complicated world of giving back while also taking care of yourself and your company.

We'll walk through how to find charities with good track records, how much should be donated each year, what types of donations qualify for deductions, and more. This guide will give you all the information you need so that when it comes time to donate money or goods, it won't feel like a chore but instead an opportunity to do something great in your community while also saving some money on taxes.

Why should my business do more when it comes to charity donations?

Besides the obvious benefits of helping out an organization or cause in need, charitable donations will also engender greater relations between your organization and your customers.

Donating money for a cause that's important to your customer base will give back and show them that you care about what they care about. It will be an opportunity for them to see that you are committed and invested in making a difference in their lives.

Helping others is good for your business. Studies show that employees who volunteer feel more engaged with their work, leading to them being more productive at work and happier overall. Plus, donating helps build relationships with other organizations in your community.

The best ways to give to charity

Simple tax-deductible donations (more on that later) are still common, but if you want to maximize the exposure of your contribution to your target audience, other methods will attract more attention online, including:

• Volunteering: This is the best way to get boots on the ground and maximum exposure. It is also an excellent opportunity for your employees to work together on something meaningful while building camaraderie among themselves. It's also an opportunity for them to learn more about their community and to connect with people.

• Charity drives: You can organize a toy drive, collect non-perishable food items or even donate money to a charity of your choice. These charitable donations will impact people in need and show that you care about making the world better for everyone. The best is this method allows you to involve your customers and clients in the activity as well.

How to check if charity organizations are legitimate

Unfortunately, many scammers are using charity as their method to tug on the heart (and purse) strings of their potential victims. Before donating your time or money, be sure to check that they are a registered charity organization. 

The IRS maintains an online database where you can check whether an organization is a registered charity and if your donation will be tax-deductible. You should also keep in mind that not all charities are eligible for tax deductions, so it's essential to do some research before making any donations.

The best and most effective ways to give to charity and claim tax deductions

Unfortunately, giving to charities and claiming it on tax is not that simple. First, you need to determine if the charity is registered with the IRS. Even then, the Tax Cuts and Job Act of 2017 made it harder to claim tax deductions for charitable giving.

Donor-advised funds are a great way to get around this change because they allow you to make a donation now and then decide later which charity the money should go towards. This is especially helpful if you're not sure what your favorite charities need right now or if you want to help out multiple organizations at once.

Three types of charitable donations can attract tax deductions, including cash, gifts of property or equipment and travel expenses accrued (14 cents per mile travelled) when helping a charitable organization. 

One of the most important things is knowing what type of donation will get you the largest deduction for charitable contributions. For example, if you donate clothing to a homeless shelter, your deduction would be based on fair market value rather than new value. There are many other IRS rules to follow, including:

• The IRS requires all donations over $250 to be documented with an official letter from the charity

• You can deduct up to 50 per cent of your adjusted gross income for cash or property donations if they exceed 2 per cent of your AGI.

• Contributions to certain private foundations, veterans organizations, fraternal societies, and cemetery organizations are limited to 30 per cent of your AGI.

• A non-cash charitable deduction of $500 requires you to fill out a Non-cash Charitable Contributions form 

It can be challenging, but many online resources include the IRS' detailed tax code and online calculators to assist. You should always consult with an accountant before making any decisions about donating to charity to know what type of contribution is best for your situation.