Ping Identity (NYSE: PING), the Intelligent Identity solution for the enterprise, has partnered with ProofID to successfully simplify identity security for Tesco Bank, the banking division of the UK’s largest supermarket retailer, to enable a more secure and customer-centric banking experience.

Since its formation in 1997, the more than five million customer identities managed by Tesco Bank had become siloed across its products and services, adding unwanted friction to the customer experience. The bank also needed to meet robust compliance requirements to adhere to the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2), a European electronic services regulation requiring strong customer authentication. These needs were hindered by an inflexible security posture that was adding cost and time to the launch of new applications and features.

“We needed a customer security platform that could extend across all our channels,” explains Tesco Bank security architect, David McConchie, “and ultimately allow us to consolidate disparate identity data, laying the foundation for a common customer identity.”

The goal was to select the best solution to break down identity silos and bring it into one simplified identity layer. With ProofID as the implementation partner, Tesco Bank configured its new PingAccess and PingFederate cluster to secure key applications in just 12 weeks. This included building a single-factor login journey and deploying it across their private AWS cloud. The result is a common identity provider with self-service features across banking, credit cards and general insurance, which allows customers to more easily manage their money and have an overall better experience. The self-service features also removed a major security burden from developers, helping them deliver new services much faster and more cost effectively.

“We saw how we could use PingAccess and PingFederate to work across web, mobile and API. The ease with which we could deploy across channels was a critical factor, along with the data governance capabilities,” explains McConchie. “Ping Identity gives us the flexible authorization capabilities we need to minimize friction and deliver a customer-centric experience.”

“Modern enterprises require increased business agility, and banks are no exception,” said Emma Maslen, VP and general manager of Ping Identity, EMEA & APAC, “Financial institutions are faced with unforgiving customers and uniquely robust compliance requirements. This amplifies the need for a partner that not only understands their complexities but can deliver flexible security solutions that deliver an integrated customer experience to achieve business goals.”

For more on how Ping Identity simplified Identity Security for Tesco Bank read the case study.

 Drawbridge, a premier provider of cybersecurity software and solutions to the alternative investment industry, today announced it has promoted Simon Eyre to the role of Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Eyre will drive Drawbridge’s corporate cybersecurity strategy and oversee infrastructure, security and privacy initiatives as the company continues its rapid global growth. Eyre also serves as Managing Director and Head of Europe for Drawbridge.

Eyre has over 20 years of experience in cybersecurity, technology architecture and IT governance, and has leveraged his industry expertise to launch Drawbridge’s EMEA operations and lead its engineering, product and customer engagement teams across Europe. With his elevation to the CISO role, Eyre will also drive Drawbridge’s corporate cybersecurity program including internationally recognized Cyber and Information Security Standards. Eyre will continuously research, identify and implement the latest global regulatory cybersecurity requirements for both Drawbridge and its clients, overseeing governance and assessing cybersecurity products to ensure they are consistently delivered to all clients and adhere to all standards. As CISO, Simon will play a key role in creating a safe and resilient environment for the company and the 400+ funds in the alternative investment space that trust their security to Drawbridge.

“Simon has established himself as an integral part of the Drawbridge team due to his leadership skills and in-depth knowledge of the security and financial markets. Elevating him to the role of CISO is a testament to his expertise and dedication to continuously safeguarding Drawbridge and our clients,” said Jason Elmer, CEO, Drawbridge. “As he adds the CISO role to his portfolio, Simon will ensure that we deliver on our promise to provide the most robust cybersecurity programs that meet and exceed client and regulatory requirements.” 

“Drawbridge has always set the standard for cybersecurity software innovation and service excellence, and I am thrilled at the opportunity to spearhead cybersecurity strategy and initiatives for Drawbridge, our global clients and our business community,” said Simon Eyre, CISO, Managing Director and Head of Europe, Drawbridge. “As the threat and regulatory environment continue to evolve, we will exceed Drawbridge’s high standards for security and compliance as we focus on the future landscape of cyber risk and introduce new strategies to ensure a more secure and resilient data environment.”

Xiggit, a next-gen fintech startup modernizing benefits, formally unveiled its solution that delivers for the first time benefits down market. Xiggit’s new offering helps small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) offer workers a broad set of high-value financial benefits. Xiggit is the first and only provider to offer SMEs a simplified provision of benefits that requests employers set a budget for employees. With Xiggit, employers with low budgets can offer “large company benefits'' to all workers, whether full-time, part-time, contract, gig worker or other classification. Xiggit reimagines the concept of ‘cafeteria-like benefits,’ blazing a new trail with plans to roll out an innovative approach that will provide a full buffet of benefits to help SMEs improve the financial wellbeing of their workers. 

Approximately 30 million SMEs employ 50% of workers in the U.S., yet SMEs can’t compete with big company perks as their limited budgets narrow the benefits options they can offer. With financial stress at an all-time high, employers are looking for ways to differentiate. In lower wage, service-based jobs, benefits are vital. When employers can provide a broad array of high-value benefit choices to all workers, they improve their ability to recruit and retain staff. Nearly 63 million Americans neither have access nor participate in employer-sponsored retirement plans, especially part-time workers and smaller firms’ employees. When workers have access to automatic payroll-deduction-based retirement programs, they're 18 times more likely to participate.

More than 100 million Americans have no retirement savings and face a retirement crisis. To address this crisis, state governments are interceding. Ten states have enacted state-mandates for employers to provide employees with a long-term retirement savings plan. Millions of SMEs face a compliance deadline. In California, private sector employers with 50 or more employees have until June 2021, and employers with five or more employees have until June 2022. 

Xiggit’s Solution: Personalized, Portable Benefits with Incentivized Financial Education

Xiggit has an online portal for businesses that takes minutes to fill out. From there, workers get a message to download Xiggit’s mobile app that they’ll use to choose and manage their benefits. Portability gives workers benefits that they can keep for their entire career, helping them build their financial security even when they change jobs. Xiggit’s solution provides:

• Professionally managed Traditional or Roth IRA: Critical retirement savings can start accumulating when workers have small contributions transferred from each paycheck into a retirement account.
• Savings account: Auto-deductions help workers save up for an emergency fund, car, vacation, etc.
• Xiggit Boosts: Workers have an opportunity for wealth acceleration through grants offered in Xiggit Boosts' daily "Learn 'n Earn" game. Available in Xiggit’s mobile app, Xiggit Boosts incentivizes workers to learn, save and adopt better money habits. Employers win because they realize an increased ROI for their benefits investment with increased employee engagement while costs remain low.  
• Financial tools: Personalized financial guidance to help workers learn the money game and improve their financial literacy and wellbeing.  Financial tools include goal-setting, retirement and savings calculators.

SMEs now have an easy way to offer valuable benefits without impacting their bottom line. Xiggit handles the benefits administration for employees, reducing the administrative burdens on employers. The employer and Xiggit work together to communicate the value of the benefits to workers. Employers increase engagement and loyalty through Xiggit’s “Learn ‘n Earn” game that improves employees’ financial literacy and wellbeing. As employees improve their financial wellness and confidence through the employer’s benefits, their loyalty and retention increase, improving the employer’s bottom line. Using Xiggit, employers forge deep bonds by helping employees achieve their most important financial goals together -- reducing their financial stress. 

“Xiggit is shifting power of choice and portability to workers. Now SMEs can offer all their workers high-value benefits with choices that count. Workers select benefits that matter to them,” said Co-founder and CEO Heather Dawson. “Xiggit is raising the bar in helping SMEs offer personalized financial tools and guidance so workers can improve their financial resilience.”

TS Imagine, a dynamic end-to-end trading and portfolio management software platform connecting the investment management industry to a network of brokers, banks and exchanges, has become the first vendor to integrate pre-trade cluster analytics from Goldman Sachs into its trading system to support buy-side best execution requirements.  

The integration means investment managers can automate more of their equity trading workflow thanks to Goldman’s pre-trade quant analytics. Goldman’s Quantitative Execution Services team classifies microstructure-based stock characteristics into “clusters”, which define the precise nature of tradability of stocks based on volatility, liquidity and complex, non-linear dynamics. By categorising stocks in this way, investment firms can make highly informed decisions about how they are going to trade – includingdriving the optimal order routing options for order executionright down to selectingthe bestalgo availableonTS Imagine’s Algo Wheel.  

Commenting on the integration, Michael Steliaros, Global Head of Quantitative Execution Services at Goldman Sachs said: “Detailed, accurate and relevant pre-trade insights have never been more important for equity trading. With the plethora of factors affecting execution dynamics globally, one needs to employ ever-increasing sophistication in disentangling said dynamics and translating them into actionable trading behaviour. Our proprietary trading cluster methodology is one such example of how our team can assist in that endeavour. The continued collaboration with TS Imagine helps deliver our market-leading analytics to buy-side firms, seamlessly integrated in their front-end, enabling access to the most relevant information required to best serve their clients.”  

“Integrating GS stock cluster analytics into the TS Imagine OEMS empowers the buy side to further enhance the decision making in their TS Algo Wheels—in particular, optimising the criteria for eligibility of what is sent to an algo wheel and strategy selection. The clustering data can be overlaid on typical wheel inputs, such as notional and ADV, with data-driven, stock-specific classifications,” added Alex Harman, Co-Head of EMEA Electronic Trading at Goldman Sachs. 

Dan Soudry, European Senior Account Manager at TS Imagine, concluded: "We are very pleased to integrate the GS cluster classification into the existing pre-trade analytics suite ofTS Imagine’s OEMS. By making them available within our blotter and automation tools, we believe it will enrich our OEMS workflow to assist the buy-side traderwith complextradingdecisions."

B-North, the Manchester-based challenger building an SME lending bank for the UK has further strengthened its team with five important hires in its finance and risk teams. 

David Travis joins as Company Secretary and General Counsel, Andrea Harrison has been appointed Head of Financial Reporting and Control, Simon Nicholson joins as Risk and Compliance Manager, Faye Comerford joins as Financial Crime Manager and Deputy Money Laundering Reporting Manager, and Sarah Hewitt joins as Underwriter, Credit Risk, as the company moves towards securing its banking licence.

David Travis will support B-North as a member of the executive team to ensure strong corporate governance and provide effective management of legal risk as the business continues to grow. Before joining B-North, David was General Counsel and Company Secretary of tech-advisory and investment firm GP Bullhound. David, who also serves as the Joint Honorary Secretary of Manchester Law Society, has previously worked at leading financial services firms including Interactive Investor, RBS, the Co-operative Bank and Citigroup. David began his career as a solicitor at law firm DLA Piper, holds a degree in Law and French from the University of Sheffield and is an Associate Member of the Chartered Governance Institute.

Andrea Harrison, an accomplished finance leader, was previously Head of Finance at UK Asset Resolution, where she worked for a decade in different roles in the finance function. Andrea will support B-North establish its financial framework, processes and controls to support all the bank’s financial reporting and operational obligations, and will draw on her coaching and mentoring background to help the business grow. Andrea has previously worked at Bradford and Bingley, where she served as a Senior Finance Manager. Andrea holds a Law degree from the University of Sheffield and began her career on the KPMG graduate scheme where she qualified as a Chartered Accountant.

Simon Nicholson will support the B-North team across operational risk management and compliance to help ensure the business can scale efficiently. Before joining B-North, Simon worked at RBS as a Risk Partner (Commercial), after serving as Operational Risk Manager SVP at Bank of America, where he led the implementation and delivery of a new operational risk framework. Simon has worked at other major financial services businesses including, UK Asset Resolution, Capita and Citigroup, acquiring significant operational risk management experience, and building a track record of helping organisations improve their risk management capability.

Faye Comerford will work with the B-North team to prevent and detect potential financial crimes, such as fraud and money laundering. This role is vital to the smooth and secure operations of the bank, protecting the business and customers. Faye is an accomplished Senior Manager specialising in compliance and Financial Crime Risk Management. Faye joins B-North from the Yorkshire Building Society, where she began her career on the graduate scheme and gained over 17 years’ experience in various roles, latterly as Senior Financial Crime Risk Manager. Faye, who has also gained experience at AXA UK, holds a History degree from The University of Hull, and an ICA Diploma in Anti-Money Laundering.

Sarah Hewitt will play an important role in supporting B-North through the initial planning and then the mobilisation stage, helping to make loan delivery to SME clients as smooth as possible.  Before joining B-North, Sarah worked at Yorkshire Bank as a Commercial Relationship Manager. Prior to this, Sarah worked across several Risk, Regional Management & Front-line roles at RBS. Sarah began her career at HSBC, joining their Commercial Graduate Scheme. Sarah holds a degree in Business Studies from De Montfort University.

The five new hires come as B-North continues to accelerate towards securing its banking licence, and completion of a £20 million ‘Series A’ fundraise.  The firm aims to disrupt the UK’s £150 billion SME lending market by establishing the first truly regional lending bank in 150 years. Through its network of regional ‘lending pods’ combined with a state-of-the-art cloud-based banking system, B-North aims to deliver loans to business 10x faster than the industry standard. The first of B-North's pods are expected to open in Manchester later in 2021.

Jonathan Thompson, Co-Founder and CEO of B-North said: “We are delighted to welcome David, Andrea, Simon, Faye, and Sarah to the B-North team, they bring a vast range of knowledge and experience gained at some of the biggest names in financial services. We have always prided ourselves on building an expert team, and these five new hires are just the latest example of B-North attracting the best and the brightest. There couldn’t be a better time to join the team, as we move through our ‘Series A’ fundraise as well as continue to work with the FCA/PRA to secure a banking license, all while working hard to build the best possible model we can to deliver much-needed support to UK SMEs."

 Colt Technology Services has today announced the appointment of Jaya Deshmukh as Executive Vice President (EVP) of Strategy and Transformation.

Reporting directly to Colt’s Chief Executive Officer, Keri Gilder, Jaya will be tasked with managing and driving Colt’s strategic roadmap and relationships, all while striving to elevate the organisation’s overall purpose and vision.

Jaya joins Colt from Google Cloud, where most recently she held the position of Head of Strategy – EMEA, responsible for creating and curating Google Cloud’s EMEA strategy. She has also recently held roles at Microsoft, PwC and Cognizant, where she was responsible for implementing digital solutions and accelerating cloud consumption to drive customer success.

Jaya’s appointment follows Colt’s recent announcement of its new three-year strategy, aiming to further develop Colt’s IQ Network through innovation and digitisation. Through this strategy, Colt aims to accelerate business growth through the power of its people by taking what’s always been in Colt’s DNA and ensuring the business is agile enough to support enterprises as they move into the future.

Speaking of Jaya’s appointment, Keri Gilder, Colt CEO, said: “I am thrilled to have Jaya joining our Executive Leadership Team to spearhead the development and execution of Colt’s strategy, product suite and critical partnership programme. Her recent experience centring around digital transformation and cloud makes her the perfect fit to lead this new team within Colt, pushing them to continue to innovate and drive our wider organisation forward.” 

Jaya added, “I am excited to be joining Colt at a time of continued transformation for the business. Being able to join an organisation as it embarks on its next strategic journey is always exhilarating because it gives the opportunity to really collaborate with partners and customers to ensure we are fully aligned and can truly drive growth for their businesses.”  

Jaya is based in London with her two daughters and commenced her role at the start of May.

 IRIS Software Group, one of the UK’s largest software companies, and Western Union Business Solutions, the payments arm of the Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments, today announced a five-year international partnership to offer simplified global payroll and payments solutions worldwide.

This partnership will serve the growing demand for world class, cross-border payroll and currency payments for organizations with a global workforce. It allows in-house teams and specialist providers to deliver payrolls in large volumes, furthering employee peace of mind and happiness, wherever they are based.

Over the past year, the location of employees has become less important, but the complexity of different cultures and regulatory environments continues to limit access to global talent pools. Working together, Western Union and IRIS Software Group are seeking to eliminate these barriers for the benefit of all customer stakeholders, with payroll, finance, HR and operational teams now viewing payroll as the hidden gem to employee security and peace of mind, freeing them to focus on their own business.

IRIS FMP is a trusted partner in international payroll, benefits, payments and HR solutions; approximately 20% of the UK’s workforce is paid by IRIS payroll offerings and 90% of the global workforce is covered by IRIS HR and payroll solutions. Western Union Business Solutions equips organisations with the solutions they need to send, receive and manage international payments across an extensive global network spanning 200 countries and territories.

David Munn, Director of International Payroll Services for IRIS Fully Managed Payroll (FMP), said: “Working with a trusted partner brings swathes of security for customers, as both parties understand the challenges of global payroll and payments in both mature and emerging international markets. This has been achieved by sharing visions and creating a strategy that supports each other’s business objectives and processes.”

IRIS FMP’s technology and experience enables payroll managers and accountants to calculate and process employee salaries. Western Union’s platform, coupled with their expertise, provides the ability to help ensure employees are paid correctly, from one employee to thousands, across multiple currencies and countries. Both parties also bring their local knowledge, providing an end-to-end process enabling employers to deliver their employees’ pay as seamlessly as possible across the world.

Frederic Simon, Regional Vice President Europe at Western Union Business Solutions also sees the value in the strategic partnership. He said, “Globalisation, increased legislation, and the acceleration of digital technology are propelling multinational and global organisations to reimagine their payroll operations. They need to ensure they can pay international employees on time, in the right currency, with confidence and ease has become table stakes. Our collaborative partnership with IRIS FMP, will help provide an end-to-end enhanced value proposition and strengthen our commitment to accommodate the payroll and payments needs for global organisations.”

The exceptional alliance has been built on collaboration, transparency and openness with both providers acknowledging the value long-term partnerships generate.

SEON, the fraud fighters, today announces it has partnered with data driven technology company, Connected Data, to introduce data and techniques successfully used in fraud detection and prevention, to the debt management process – an industry first.

This strategic partnership is a key step to bringing innovation to the way organisations manage their debt portfolios. SEON’s approach to fraud prevention includes tools that draw on data from across the internet to establish customers’ digital footprints to wean out false accounts and prevent fraudulent transactions from taking place. SEON already supports companies from a wide range of industries, including Patreon, AirFrance, Rivalry, Ladbrokes by having its technology operate in real time, with no stale data and zero false positives, a paradigm shift from previous proprietary databases to true real time fraud prevention.

Connected Data has successfully pivoted this approach to fraud prevention into debt prevention. The partnership will provide a vital new layer to the debt management process and a stronger indication of how likely a person is to engage through the contact details that a business has for them. For example, an email address' use across multiple social media platforms indicates it is used in day-to-day activity, while data breaches associated with the email indicate that it has been owned for some time and used to register for various services and accounts online.

The result gives a clearer indication of whether the email address is right for engaging and resolving debt issues or if other contacts routes are needed. The process is automated, so it quickly and effectively segments those contact channels that are more likely to be the current primary contact channels details for the customer.

Jimmy Fong, Chief Commercial Officer at SEON, said: “We are thrilled to partner and power Connected Data in such a unique way. Our success in the fraud fighting space has grown rapidly as we knew we could offer a more effective, affordable, flexible, intuitive solution that clearly proves its ROI. Connected Data is a like-minded company that is doing the same with debt prevention and this synergy will work perfectly to help improve the way organisations manage their debt portfolios. Together we know that our partnership will have a strong impact in fighting fraud and reducing debt across the globe.”

Kirk Fletcher, CEO of Connected Data, said: “This is a great example of how Connected Data blends different datasets to achieve fairer and more positive outcomes. Quite rightly the prevention of fraud is a major focus for our customers. Through our partnership with SEON, we are deploying the same impact into debt prevention – a business process that merits equal focus across any organisation. Organisations need to be able to not only reach their customers but engage with them through the most effective contact channels. Having valid, relevant, contact details is essential to this and our unique partnership with SEON is making it possible. It means organisations can maintain good relationships with those customers and focus their resources where they are needed most. It is a simple, but highly effective strategy.”

Mphasis, an Information Technology (IT) solutions provider specializing in cloud and cognitive services, announced today the setting up of new centers in Mexico, Costa Rica and Taiwan. As part of a large global deal in the Hi-tech industry, the new centers will accommodate over 800 people that will serve existing Hi-tech clients.  The services offered out of these centers would be large-scale operations in the areas of application development, support, testing, operations, and financial analysis. These centers will provide Mphasis with the ability to offer nearshore services to other strategic customers both in the aforementioned areas as well as in additional functional areas.

“In recent years, Mphasis has seen tremendous growth in its Hi-tech business driven by capability complemented with superior customer experience offered to our clients. In a direction to further improve our support to our strategic clients, we have been investing not only in building out deeper expertise but also in increasing geographical coverage in regions that are strategic for our clients, most notably Mexico, Costa Rica, and Taiwan. The creation of these centers solidifies our commitment to the region and the Hi-tech industry,” said Nitin Rakesh, Chief Executive Officer, Mphasis.

“We at Mphasis are excited with the expansion of our footprint in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Taiwan as this helps us expand the talent pool we can access and allows us to work with the best of engineering talent irrespective of location. Our clients will now have access to both nearshore support and engineering talent,” said Elango R, President, North America - New Client Acquisition, Mphasis. “Digital transformation is part of our landscape, and more so the people who drive it. We are expanding our services and solutions to allow our customers to innovate and incorporate next-gen technologies.”

The Mexico center will be in Guadalajara. Our Mexico and Costa Rica centers came into existence this February and about 800 jobs will be created in a span of six months at these locations.

Copper, the London-based digital asset infrastructure provider, today announced the close of a $50 million Series B funding round.

The investment round was co-led by leading B2B software investor Dawn Capital and Target Global, who led Copper’s Series A round. Also participating in the round were enterprise fintech specialist VC firm Illuminate Financial Management, Copper’s existing investors LocalGlobe and MMC Ventures, and a number of industry-renowned fintech executives and entrepreneurs serving as strategic angels. The round follows Copper’s Series A funding in February 2020, bringing total capital raised to date to $60 million.

Copper will use the funds to broaden its international footprint, particularly across the US and Asia, with plans to open at least two new regional offices. Copper will also announce key high-profile hires across its strategy, operations, and business development departments, leading to a tripling of headcount by the end of 2021. And significant investment will be made to further develop Copper’s product suite.

Founded in 2018 by CEO Dmitry Tokarev, Copper provides a gateway into the cryptoasset space for institutional investors by offering custody, prime brokerage, and settlements. Its proprietary ClearLoop technology connects the universe of cryptocurrency exchanges in one secure trading loop — with instant, offline settlement across its integrated networks.

Institutional investment in digital assets is increasing at pace, with institutional ownership forecast to rise from 10% today to 30% by 2025. Assets under custody at Copper increased more than 40x since Q3 2020. Copper has also rapidly expanded its list of active institutional clients, currently serving more than 200 customers, which include traders, wealth companies, private banks, cryptocurrency funds and family offices.

In this rapidly evolving and expanding market, Copper is reducing the barriers to entry for institutional investors by providing the infrastructure to trade high volumes of cryptocurrency quickly and securely across multiple exchanges. To date, Copper has integrated more than 25 major exchanges into its ClearLoop and Walled Garden networks.

Dmitry Tokarev, founder and CEO of Copper, said: “Copper has achieved tremendous growth over the past 12 months. I am incredibly grateful to our talented and growing team whose hard work is reflected, in part, by this highly successful funding round. I would also like to express my thanks to our investors who continue to support Copper and our ambitious plans to expand across the globe, and cement ClearLoop as the go-to for the clearing and custody of digital assets. Their backing, and continued support from our strong client base, is a testament to the quality of the business we are building.

“It is no secret that that interest in owning digital assets has grown exponentially, evident from the influx of institutional investors in Bitcoin, as well as other layer one protocols like Ethereum and Ripple. As Copper enters its next phase of growth, we will continue to react to the market and provide the services that investors need; to elevate the standards of digital asset security, trading and clearing across the board.”

Josh Bell, General Partner at Dawn Capital, said: “With the proliferation of institutional investment in digital assets over the last few years, we had been tracking Copper since its entry to the market just three years ago. It is rare to find a team that so expertly understands not only traditional asset management, but that of digital assets and how to marry the two worlds to provide institutional-grade infrastructure that truly meets investors’ requirements. So, we are delighted to be supporting Dmitry and the Copper team in their next phase of growth, and believe they are perfectly placed to deliver the new industry-standard in digital asset custody and clearing globally.”