London-based analytics company Nimble Learn has announced a breakthrough in the accessibility of large and complex open data sets.

Open Data Blend is the collective name for a set of services that are designed to produce analysis-ready open data and reduce the time and cost of sifting through large open data sets.

It’s primarily aimed at data engineers, data analysts and data scientists, with potential applications in areas as diverse as pharmaceuticals, road safety and car maintenance.

Open Data Blend is the result of over six years of research and development into open data publishing, data engineering and modern data warehousing, and more analysis-ready datasets are due to be added over time.

Michael Amadi, founder of Nimble Learn, said: “Our data engineering team have been hard at work building out a sustainable service that curates large open data from the UK, transforms it into analysis-ready datasets, enriches it with derived values, and makes it available through a frictionless open data catalogue."

“We have the fundamental belief that everyone should have access to refined and frictionless open data, and Open Data Blend is a significant step along that path.”

The openly-licensed data features a fast, lightweight data catalogue user interface, as well as an open access data catalogue and bulk data API that is built on open standards.

Initial data sets include data relating to drugs prescribed by NHS England, MOT test results since the system was computerised in 2005, and road safety statistics in Great Britain.

Another service, Open Data Blend Analytics, enables data analysts and data scientists to analyse the datasets “at the speed of thought”, thereby allowing for much quicker insights and ultimately business value.

“Open Data Blend Analytics surfaces our datasets through a rich semantic data model that can be connected to and analysed from BI tools like Excel, Power BI and Tableau,” added Amadi.

Browse through the Open Data Blend Datasets, or find out more information about Open Data Blend Analytics.

Leading UK RegTech specialist SmartSearch has warned against the dangers of rushing through anti-money laundering checks, in a bid to beat the upcoming stamp duty holiday deadline at the end of June.

Thousands of homebuyers are expected to benefit from the temporary lifting of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) for properties worth up to £500,000 in England and Northern Ireland, following the decision to extend the holiday from March.

However, as the deadline gets ever closer there are concerns that mortgage applications and contracts may be rushed through, providing opportunities for criminals and fraudsters to take advantage of a system under pressure.

Martin Cheek, managing director at West Yorkshire-based SmartSearch, said there had been increasing levels of fraud and money laundering attempts since the outbreak of coronavirus, as criminals can easily bypass manual security checks.

He said: “In a busy market as we have today, which is driven by the rush to beat the stamp duty holiday, it’s a sad fact that criminals and their enabling agents, will look to exploit the opportunity.

“Property transactions remain the number one target for money laundering and with the volume currently going through the system there is a danger that some AML checks and procedures may be rushed through.

“But in a way the bigger danger is from agents and legal firms still using manual methods of verification for anti-money laundering processes. Document forgery is a major industry with highly sophisticated products available on the black market.

“It’s almost impossible for even the most experienced broker or agent to tell the difference. If they’re under time pressure, or just seeing a passport image copied into an email, there is a real danger criminal applications will get through unchecked.”

According to Cheek, regulated businesses operating in the property market should be looking to switch to electronic verification as a secure, fast and accurate method of onboarding new customers and remaining compliant with Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulations.

He adds: “Financial services firms who are unwittingly processing applications from criminals will be held responsible by the FCA so it’s clearly in their interest to do everything they can to prevent them even getting through.

“The most effective way of doing that is by switching to electronic verification for Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures. With the technology available today it takes two seconds to carry out an individual search, across multiple global data bases, with just a name, address and date of birth.

“Manually checking hard copy documents is no longer necessary, or secure. The switch to digital is long overdue for many businesses who would not only save themselves time and money, but ensure criminals are kept out of the system.”

For more information, please visit www.smartsearch.com

Scienaptic, the world’s leading AI-powered credit decision platform provider, announced its partnership with 700Credit, the global leader in credit data for the automotive industry. This alliance will enable Scienaptic to tap 700Credit’s credit and compliance reports to enhance decisioning for its auto lending clients.

700Credit is the largest provider of credit reports, compliance, and soft pull products to over 14,000 Automotive, RV, Powersports and Marine dealerships across the U.S. 700Credit’s offerings include credit reports, pre-screen and pre-qualification platforms, OFAC compliance, Red Flag solutions, MLA, synthetic fraud detection, identity verification, score disclosure notices, adverse action notices and more.

“Using rich data, auto lenders are empowered to make more informed decisions while safely extending credit to new applicants,” said Ken Hill, Managing Director of 700Credit. “Scienaptic’s AI-driven credit underwriting platform, paired with our data, will allow auto lenders to approve more customers with confidence, mitigate risk, and deliver faster credit decisions. We are pleased to partner with Scienaptic to help auto lenders make better loan decisions for their customers.”

"Integration of AI with rich data is radically changing credit underwriting," said Pankaj Jain, President of Scienaptic. "Through this partnership, Scienaptic and 700Credit will combine resources and expertise to focus on delivering a ‘best-in-class’ credit decisioning solution for auto lenders.”

Clearpay, a leader in “Buy Now, Pay Later” payments known as Afterpay (ASX: APT) outside the U.K. and Europe, announced that it has reached two million active customers in the UK, just as the business introduces its first major global brand campaign, ‘Pay Better’. 

Pay Better

Clearpay's 'Pay Better' campaign aims to empower people to not just pay later but pay better through having the freedom and flexibility to pay over six weeks and never pay interest. The overarching campaign shines a light on the ways consumers can reclaim control of their financial lives through responsible spending. 

The “Pay Better’ campaign is timed with re-opening of British retail and includes a multi-million pound investment in innovative digital, social and out-of-home creative - with high impact billboards, taxi wraps, bus wraps and more. The campaign can be seen in more than 17 markets worldwide- including London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Nottingham and more in the U.K.

Clearpay’s Head of U.K. Rich Bayer said: “It is an exciting time at Clearpay, hitting our 2 million customer milestone alongside our Pay Better campaign launch. All of this comes just as we are reaching our two year anniversary in the U.K. We are excited by the growth and opportunity in this market, and look forward to continuing to offer a way to pay that empowers customers to budget and pursue financial wellness.”

Over Two Million Customers

Clearpay’s more than two million customers can shop from more than 6,000 brands and retailers offering, or in the process of offering Clearpay to their customers. A full list of brand and retail partners can be found on Clearpay’s Shop Directory. The company refers more than 30 million leads to its global merchants each month.

Clearpay’s campaign will run from 31st May to mid-July, and will cover Large format OOH/DOOH, Taxi Supersides, Bus T-Sides, Tiktok in-feed videos, social, web and CRM. 

Clearpay is known as Afterpay (ASX:APT) in the US, Canada and Australia.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the premier market infrastructure for the global financial services industry, today announced the appointment of Jennifer Peve as Head of Strategy and Business Development. In this new role, Peve will have overarching responsibility for the firm’s global corporate strategy, digital product development and strategic partnerships and alliances, reporting to DTCC President & CEO Michael Bodson. Peve will also join the DTCC Management Committee. This appointment is effective July 2, 2021.

At a time when the speed and breadth of technology advancement, especially in digital innovation, continues to accelerate and drive industry-wide change, Peve will be charged with maintaining strategic alignment across DTCC and ensuring coordination and adaptability in the formulation and execution of the firm’s strategy. She will also bring increased focus on leveraging new technologies to enhance the post-trade environment and position DTCC as the bridge between legacy and emerging technologies, building on successful initiatives she has led, including Project Ion (DTCC’s future vision of an alternative digital settlement service) and Project Whitney (DTCC’s digital product offering for private securities).

“Jennifer is a proven leader who has the unique ability to understand, conceptualize and shape the future of the post-trade environment as well as the application of new and emerging technologies to drive the creation of creative and effective products and solutions for our clients,” Bodson said. “Jennifer will bring together our corporate strategy, digital product development and strategic partnerships and alliances as we continue to make significant advances in transforming the post-trade environment and introducing and utilizing new technologies to drive down costs and risks for our clients.”

Peve joined DTCC in 2015 as Executive Director, Business Development and Fintech Strategy Office. She was promoted to Managing Director in 2018 and assumed expanded responsibilities for Global Partners and Innovation. She previously served as Executive Director, OTC Product Management, at CME Group.

 The Extraordinary Shareholders' Meeting of SIA, which met today under the chairmanship of Federico Lovadina with the participation of 96.1% of the Company's share capital, approved the plan for the merger by incorporation of SIA S.p.A. into Nexi S.p.A. 

The completion of the merger is subject to the fulfilment of certain standard conditions precedent for transactions of this type, including the attainment of the relevant authorizations, including that of the competent Antitrust Authority. 

The transaction represents a strategic opportunity to integrate the activities of SIA and Nexi, thus creating a new Italian paytech, leader in Europe able to cover the entire digital payments value chain and serve all market segments with the most complete and innovative range of solutions. 

In the digital landscape of 2021, it’s paramount for businesses to have an online presence. Yet, with so many B2B eCommerce platforms available, it can be an overwhelming decision for businesses. To help them make an informed decision, here are five of the most popular B2B eCommerce platforms available in the UK. 

Top B2B eCommerce platforms in the UK

• Magento

Originally starting out as a B2C platform, Magento is now one of the more popular B2B eCommerce platforms on the market and is used by businesses ranging from local SMEs to global enterprises. 

The leading open-source eCommerce platform is primarily focused on B2C businesses but offers considerable add-ons and extensions for B2B. The platform offers flexibility and scalability, allowing users to choose which features to implement, which causes variation in cost depending on customisation. 

• OroCommerce

Recently launched in the UK, OroCommerce is one of few solely B2B platforms and has been designed for midsize and large enterprises. Founded by the people who kickstarted Magento, OroCommerce boasts the same time-tested technologies and principles. 

The open-source nature of the product allows Oro to leverage the expertise, feedback and contribution of its ecosystem of partners, developers and customers. This means that the product can be finetuned and innovative in response to adapting to market demands and changes. 

Oro is also built on the Symfony PHP framework, allowing the platform to leverage the power of the Symfony community and Symfony product. In addition, open source code makes it easier for the platform to be customised to best suit the needs of any business. 

Features include flexible workflows, multiple pricing lists, integrations with third party apps and native integration with OroCRM, which is a multi-channel customer relationship management tool. 

• Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus is another popular and successful option, powering over a million online stores. It offers localised customer experiences for international sellers, custom automation flows and integration with Shopify’s apps and partners. 

The platform is aimed at enterprise level organisations that are looking for a step up from Shopify’s standard eCommerce platform.

Shopify Plus offers flexible solutions, reaching consumers and businesses with the ability to scale, but the platform is more aligned to the needs of B2C eCommerce models. 

• BigCommerce

BigCommerce offers businesses a quick solution for building an online store, with pre-built themes and functionality to allow for a speedy set-up. 

Whilst offering solutions for B2B ecommerce, Bigcommerce thrives as an ecommerce solution for low complexity ecommerce models. The pre-built themes may be a major draw for many businesses, but this does mean the customizability is limited. 

For smaller businesses, the price is also a major bonus, but the cost of the platform grows alongside order totals, meaning it may not be suitable for growing businesses. 

• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce 

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce is an omnichannel eCommerce solution that allows businesses to build a website, connect physical and digital stores, track customer behaviours and requirements, deliver personalised experiences, engage with customers across numerous channels.

The platform provides retailers with a modern, flexible and cloud-based retail solution that integrates customer experiences, loyalty programmes and online stores with backend systems such as operations, inventory, and resource utilisation.

This is in addition to specific B2B eCommerce capabilities, which have been built on to the B2C model, including tools to improve B2B account relations, partner management tools, account-based promotions, distributed order management and self-service purchasing.

• Salesforce CloudCraze

Salesforce B2B Commerce Cloud, also known as CloudCraze, is essentially a branch of Salesforce Commerce Cloud tailored for B2B, facilitating an array of eCommerce activities.

This platform came into being when Salesforce acquired CloudCraze, a robust eCommerce tool for B2B transactions. The software is typically designed for businesses that deal with larger and more complex purchases, offering an ideal combination of eCommerce and business CRM.

CloudCraze allows businesses to offer an extensive cross-channel marketing approach to its clients, similar to that of a B2C platform. This will help businesses to improve the overall user experience and build healthy client relationships.

FinecoBank today announces that UK customers will have access to a range of funds offered by Vontobel.

Vontobel is an active investment manager with a global reach and a multi-boutique approach. Its suite of funds covers equity, fixed-income and multi-asset investments. 

This latest addition to Fineco’s investment platform follows a string of recent fund announcements made this year including Wellington Management, AXA IM, Candriam and Ninety One.

Paolo Di Grazia, Deputy General Manager, Fineco: “We are determined to continue adding more internationally-recognised high quality fund managers to Fineco’s investing platform. For this reason, we are thrilled to have partnered with Vontobel and to further diversify the range of leading-edge solutions available to our customers.”

Sheridan Bowers, Head of UK and Ireland, Vontobel Asset Management: “We are delighted to have partnered with Fineco. At Vontobel, we are committed to meeting our client’s needs and actively managing their assets with the utmost care. We look forward to welcoming Fineco customers to our collection of award-winning funds and helping them achieve their long-term financial goals.”

About FinecoBank

Launched in 2017 in UK, FinecoBank, the multi-currency bank and one of the most important FinTech banks in Europe, has built an integrated business model by offering customers its One-Stop-Solution: it offers banking, trading and investment services from a single account through innovative transactional platforms developed with proprietary technologies. Fineco represents a new way of banking, a smart way to invest money.

Fineco’s mission is to simplify customers’ lives when dealing with financial services, and has developed a very powerful yet user-friendly platform. Learn more about us on finecobank.co.uk.

LexisNexis® Risk Solutions, the global data and analytics provider, today releases its latest report Cutting the Cost of AML Compliance, which reveals a conservative estimate for AML compliance costs across the UK financial services sector reaching almost £29bn per year.

This figure is equivalent to more than half the 2020 UK defence budget (£53.3 billion[1]), and a significant proportion of the estimated £37 billion the NCA† estimates that organised crime costs the UK each year.

The research, produced in partnership with leading agency, Oxford Economics, is a comprehensive AML cost analysis study helping to uncover widespread inefficiencies in AML compliance processes within the UK financial services sector. 

Avoidable cost

The findings reveal that regulatory burden, rather than a rising criminal threat, is the primary cause of the growth in compliance costs, as firms struggle to keep up with ever-increasing and changing regulatory requirements. The implementation of the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5MLD) alone, is estimated to be costing the average UK financial institution around three quarters of a million pounds[2].

Changes in data privacy requirements, customer demand for faster payments and increasing geo-political risks were all cited as key external drivers of increased compliance costs.

Rising costs are compounded by significant AML inefficiencies, the report found, including data quality, system failures, gaps in IT infrastructure, ineffective internal tools and outdated technologies.

Adding unnecessarily to the burden, the report also found that firms are creating more work for themselves by erring on the side of caution, as a consequence of a fear of regulatory repercussions, if something is missed.

Steve Elliot, Managing Director, Business Services UK & Ireland at LexisNexis Risk Solutions commented on today’s findings:

“The fact that increasing AML regulations, rather than an evolving criminal threat is the primary driver for increased compliance costs in the UK is a clear sign that the UK’s current AML approach requires wholesale change. Building on past solutions is evidently becoming too costly and ineffective, and so they need to be redesigned for the modern age, using big data and technology instead of rules and manual processing.”

“This report appears to show that, under the strain of increasing regulatory burden, firms are spending time and cost on fulfilling their short-term compliance requirements and are tending to throw people at the problem, rather than investing in technology, data and analytics, which could bring about longer-term and more transformational benefits.”

Time for technology

Diving deeper, today’s research reveals that over half (53%) of compliance budgets are spent on processes required to onboard new clients, such as Customer Due Diligence (CDD) checks, remote ID & verification checks and risk assessments, driven in part by the shift in demand for online services fuelled by successive lockdowns. A further 14% of budget is consumed by investigations and evidence gathering relating to enhanced due diligence checks.

Whilst alert investigations account for only around 6% of AML spend, the resource burden is high, as another LexisNexis Risk Solutions report⁴ in 2017 revealed, firms spend more than 20 hours and 3.7 members of staff remediating even standard risk customers, 90% of which turn out to be false positives.

If unaddressed, today’s research reveals that the rapidly increasing cost of compliance to firms is expected to continue to rise in the next three years, with predictions putting the total cost at over £30bn by 2023.

Added to that, financial institutions expect the UK’s exit from the European Union to result in more regulation², fuelling an even steeper AML compliance cost rise in the coming years.

Steve Elliot, LexisNexis Risk Solutions concluded:

“Tech-enabled big data and analytics tools can help businesses transform the detection of financial crime and shift their focus towards prevention rather than detection. Good quality data alone can significantly transform a firm’s AML process effectiveness by reducing data silos and providing a far clearer picture of the risk a potential customer presents, reducing false positives and associated remediation tasks in the process, which as this report highlights, accounts for a further fifth of firms’ AML costs.”

“Over-reliance on people is expensive and clearly unsustainable in the long term, however the answer isn’t to reduce human resource, it’s to employ technology to do the repetitive tasks that can then free up people’s valuable knowledge to be deployed where it’s most effective, applying a robust and regulator-approved risk-based approach that will really make a difference to the effectiveness of AML activities.”

“It’s reassuring that firms clearly support and see the benefits of introducing technology into their AML processes, with two in five firms planning data quality initiatives in the coming year and a similar number planning to implement new compliance software. But it’s also apparent that what’s holding the sector back from more widespread change is reassurance from regulators that the technology they’re adopting is fully endorsed. Today’s report should be a rallying call for UK regulators to combine efforts and work together with the industry to ensure that the right processes, tools and technology is in place to stand a chance of effectively detecting and deterring money laundering in all its forms. As part of this, there needs to be a deliberate move towards a far more considered risk-based approach to AML that draws the best elements of big data, technology-assisted processing and human knowledge and experience together to truly understand and prevent the constantly evolving criminal threat.”