National Settlement Depository (NSD), Russia’s central securities depository, has appointed Viktor Zhidkov as Chairman of the Executive Board. Mr. Zhidkov's candidacy has been approved by the Bank of Russia and by NSD’s Supervisory Board.

NSD headed by the new Executive Board Chairman will continue to implement its development strategy until 2024: developing its core depository business and additional innovative products for Moscow Exchange Group clients focusing on reliability, effectiveness, and business growth.

The Chairman of the Executive Board will also tackle strengthening NSD's role as the most important element of Russian financial market infrastructure, ensuring the high quality of post-trade services, and diversifying the Company’s business by developing new services and new client segments while maintaining a high level of profitability and customer satisfaction.

Viktor Zhidkov has worked in financial markets for more than 25 years. Between 2009 and 2021, he was Head of Vesta Investment Bank. From 2006 to 2009, he was First Vice President and Management Board member of Petrokommerts Bank, and from 1994 to 2006, he headed the Treasury and Financial Markets Division at MDM-Bank.

Victor Zhidkov has been a member of the Board of Directors of the self-regulatory organization National Financial Association for 13 years. He has also been a member of the Exchange Council in recent years.

Victor Zhidkov graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Aviation Instrumentation and also holds an MBA from the Academy of National Economy under the Government of the Russian Federation

OMERS Private Equity and Alberta Investment Management Corporation, on behalf of certain of its clients (“AIMCo”), today announced that they have signed an agreement to sell their majority stake in Environmental Resources Management (“ERM,” or “the Company”) to KKR.

UK headquartered ERM is the world’s largest pure-play sustainability consultancy, operating in over 40 countries with over 5,500 partners and employees globally. ERM partners with the world’s leading organizations to create innovative solutions to sustainability challenges and unlock commercial opportunities that meet the needs of today while preserving opportunity for future generations.

Since investing in ERM in 2015, OMERS Private Equity and AIMCo have worked closely with the Company and its management to support the business’ continued growth and development. This growth has been both organic and M&A-driven, with ERM having acquired and successfully integrated 14 highly complementary businesses during OMERS and AIMCo’s investment period.

During this period of sustained financial and operational success, ERM’s management team has been led by CEO Keryn James.

Jonathan Mussellwhite, Senior Managing Director and Head of OMERS European Private Equity, said:

“When OMERS invested alongside the management and AIMCo in 2015, we saw an opportunity to back the market leader in an industry with considerable long-term growth potential, led by a proven, highly-capable and ambitious management team. ERM has been a perfect match for OMERS Private Equity, our partnership approach and our substantial, evergreen capital base.

The sale of ERM is OMERS Private Equity’s fourth realisation in Europe and our fifth successful exit globally in the past three years. Each sale has resulted in strong income, supporting OMERS core commitment of delivering sustainable, affordable and meaningful pensions for our members. We continue to look for opportunities to deploy capital across Europe as we build our European Private Equity business.”

James Frankish, Director, OMERS Private Equity, said:

“Since 2015, we have supported the Company and its management in ERM’s ambitious growth strategy with great results. As ERM has expanded into new focus sectors such as power, chemicals, and technology, and media and telecoms, ERM has also reinforced its leadership position in corporate sustainability and climate change. ERM moves on from our period of investment significantly enhanced in scale and capability, and well-placed to further deliver critical services to its customers around the world. We wish the business, its management and its employees the very best for the future.”

Peter Teti, Senior Vice President, Private Equity, AIMCo said:

“AIMCo, on behalf of its clients, is proud to have been part of ERM’s journey to be the leading environmental and sustainability advisor globally. Our partnership with the management team and employees of ERM has helped position the Company to grow to new heights with the support of an investment from KKR. We would like to thank the management team and employees of ERM for their unwavering commitment to the Company and its purpose. AIMCo will continue to seek opportunities to partner with great management teams and companies as we continue to grow our global Private Equity platform.”

Keryn James, CEO, ERM said:

“We are thrilled to announce this new partnership with KKR, which will drive a long-term path for growth for ERM - broadening the scope of our client service and deepening our impact on sustainability. I’m so proud of the strong, well-regarded company that we have built, with the support of OMERS Private Equity and AIMCo in recent years. It is our performance working alongside clients to address their most pressing challenges and opportunities that helped position ERM as the right fit for KKR’s investment philosophy.”

The transaction is expected to close in Q3 2021 subject to certain conditions, including regulatory approvals. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Kidbrooke, a leading provider of financial analytics APIs, confirmed today that they are making their range of holistic financial planning and analytics solutions available to additiv customers on both their Software-as-a-Service and Embedded Finance models. 

The collaboration with additiv, a leading SaaS and Embedded Finance provider to the wealth management industry, enables their customers’ clients to utilize a user-friendly and scalable financial simulation engine, to meet the growing demand for seamless financial decision-support. 

Kidbrooke’s solutions, powered by the OutRank API, are now available with additiv’s Hybrid Wealth Manager and assisted Wealth Robo Advisor products on their enterprise-ready Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model.  Additionally, the solutions will also be available on additiv’s Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) model to support the increasing need for financial services to easily be embedded into consumer platforms.

Fredrik Davéus, the founder and CEO at Kidbrooke, said: “Financial education has the potential to dramatically improve societies’ well-being, and financial institutions are increasingly looking to address this through leveraging digital tools.  Unfortunately, financial decisions are all too often analyzed in isolation and the supply of high-quality assistance is constrained.  At Kidbrooke we focus on overcoming these limitations and strive to provide added value across the board. We are convinced that creating personalized digital wealth journeys will increase profitability by letting end users be served more frequently at a lower cost.“

Fredrik continues: “Our solutions fit perfectly with additiv’s developing product range, both in terms of their award-winning wealth products for financial institutions but also their move to meet the market need for embedded finance.  Delivered as a state-less cloud-based API, our solutions support several use-cases for embedding wealth products into consumer platforms, including the opportunity to embed our financial planning services into pension and life providers’ interfaces.“

Eric Andersson, General Manager Europe at additive, said: “Consumers now expect to have easy access to tools and functions that enable them to improve their lives, and wealth planning is no exception.  Whether it’s having access to these services to manage their investments or when reviewing their pensions or life insurance policies.“

Eric continues: “Adding Kidbrooke solutions allows us to increase our breadth of service while progressing our goal to democratize wealth management. Additionally, it also adds another offering to our ever-growing partner ecosystem within our Banking-as-a-Service model.  By embedding Kidbrooke’s services into their consumer platforms, via our DFS platform, financial and non-financial companies can offer relevant and personalized wealth management services to people at their time of need, over the most convenient channel alongside their core products, to create a deeper relationship as well as a new cross-sales opportunity.“

Both Kidbrooke and additiv offer cloud native Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Embedded Finance models through Microsoft Azure.  This ensures their customers lower their costs, reduce their time-to-value, and continue to benefit seamlessly from product and technology enhancements when implementing their solutions.

Spectrum Markets, the pan-European trading venue for securitized derivatives, has introduced a Stop Order functionality with customised features.

Compared to other venues, Spectrum’s stop orders functionality offers two advantages to investors. The venue will use the presence of Market Maker Quotes in the order book as a trigger for Stop Orders, as opposed to the more commonly used Last Traded Price. This means that orders may be triggered even in times of low trading volumes and in safe conditions in terms of fair price for the execution.

A second feature allows investors the ability to select the side of the order book that triggers their Stop Order. Spectrum Markets is one of the first trading venues to introduce this feature. Both Stop Buy and Stop Sell (Loss) Orders can be chosen to be triggered by the Offer- or the Bid price. This opens up more choices and possible trading strategies for investors.

Both Stop Buy and Stop Sell Orders can be either submitted as a Stop Market Order or a Stop Limit Order. Stop Market Orders will be executed at the best available price, against the available liquidity. This means that they may receive partial fills. Stop Limit Orders will be executed when their limit price is reached.

Eren Eraslan, Head of Product Innovation at Spectrum Markets, said: “Our tailor-made Stop Order options provide connected brokers with an additional method of opening and closing positions for their investors. This functionality once again demonstrates our ability to innovate the trading of securitised derivatives.”

Spectrum Markets is a pan-European marketplace where retail investors can invest in structured products via their brokers. Since its launch, Spectrum’s trading services are available in the following countries: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Ireland and Belgium.

As we enter the next phase out of lockdown, research from  Nucleus Commercial Finance reveals nearly a third (31%) of SME leaders are optimistic about all restrictions lifting on June 21st, however they also fear future lockdowns and the impact this will have on their business. 

Despite the UK being on track to lift all social distancing restrictions next month, three in 10 (30%) SME leaders are unsure as to whether all measures will be removed by June 21st, while 26% believe that the removal of all restrictions by this date will be delayed. 

On the other hand, just one in 10 (12%) SME leaders believe all restrictions will be removed by June and there will be no future lockdowns.

The research found that smaller businesses are the least optimistic about restrictions lifting. Micro businesses, those with 1-9 employees, are three times more likely to think the removal of restrictions will be delayed compared to medium businesses (50-249 employees), with these figures standing at 21% and 7% respectively. 

When looking at the lockdown sentiment regionally, those in the South West and London are most fearful of future lockdowns, standing at 44% and 38% respectively, compared to just 23% in the North West. 

Chirag Shah, CEO, Nucleus Commercial Finance comments: “After more than a year of lockdowns impacting their ability to open their doors, or in some cases even survive, it’s hardly surprising that SME owners are still worried about what the future holds. Despite level two restrictions being lifted this week, there is still a sense of uncertainty about whether life will return to ‘normal’ next month. However, it is important for business owners to remember that they have shown extraordinary levels of resilience over the past 12 months and that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

“Moving forward, government and industry must work together to raise awareness of the various support measures available, and reassure business owners of the help at hand. These solutions can be tailored to business’ specific needs and delivered at speed to help them not only survive, but thrive in the pandemic and beyond.”

EFA, a leading Assets Servicing company in Luxembourg, is proud to announce that  it has signed the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment. 

The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) are widely recognised as the leading global  framework for encouraging positive environmental, social and governance practices in  investment strategies. For EFA, becoming a signatory to the PRI is a natural step after  joining the UN Global Compact, in which signatories commit to aligning their operations and  strategies with ten principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti 

corruption. 

Since its foundation, EFA takes ESG matters very seriously and has been rewarded the  Gold level by the independent Ecovadis label since 2018. This allows Asset Managers with  Sustainable investment strategies to keep a high-level of ESG along all the value chain of  their funds.  

With this signature, EFA tells its clients, partners and suppliers that it commits to make a positive impact in this world. 

Noel Fessey, EFA CEO said, " We believe that what we do today – individually and  collectively – shapes our world's future. We believe that we have a responsibility to help  shape a better, sustainable future. With this signature, we declare that the EFA supports  those in the fund industry who want to make a difference. " 

Fiona Reynolds, PRI CEO, commented: " Service providers such as EFA play a pivotal role  in strengthening the integration of ESG across the investment chain. We’re very pleased to  welcome EFA as a signatory to the PRI, and applaud their commitment to adhere to our  principles in supporting institutional investor clients in Luxembourg and beyond. We look  forward to working with the team. " 

Temenos , the banking software company, today announced the integration of Taurus SA (“Taurus”), the Swiss digital asset and blockchain infrastructure fintech, with Temenos Transact, the next generation core banking software. Following a thorough landscape review and evaluation process, Temenos selected Taurus as a partner to deliver simplified access to digital assets for its banking clients.

Taurus recently received a securities firm license from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) to operate the first independent regulated marketplace for digital assets in the world. The fintech is uniquely able to cover cryptocurrencies including Staking and Decentralized Finance (DeFi), any type of tokenized assets on any standard including issuance and full-lifecycle management, and digital currencies - all within the same platform.

Alexandre Duret, Product Director at Temenos, said: “We believe that digital assets represent new opportunities for banks and wealth managers. Investors are increasingly aware of the performance of cryptocurrencies, which can effectively participate in the diversification of a portfolio. But other applications of blockchain technology, such as tokenized securities have the potential to transform the value chain with simpler issuance procedures, greater liquidity and real-time settlement. Taurus is leading the field in cryptography and blockchain technology. By joining forces, we can help banks to bridge the gap between traditional investments and digital assets.”

Taurus’ technology is available to Temenos’ clients through Temenos MarketPlace, a curated community of best-in-class fintech solutions that complement Temenos software. Taurus brings the capability to integrate and seamlessly manage any digital asset, whether traditional securities, cash or digital assets, through its full suite of products: Taurus-CAPITAL (tokenization and lifecycle management), Taurus-PROTECT (hot, warm, cold digital asset custody), and Taurus-EXPLORER (API-based blockchain connectivity to more than 10 blockchain protocols).

This collaboration allows banks to not only provide custody to a wide range of digital assets but also further innovate by creating tokenized products of their choice. Depending on their business model and regulatory framework, banks will also be able to create, manage and service a wide range of tokenized assets leveraging Taurus-CAPITAL and Taurus-PROTECT functionalities.

Sébastien Dessimoz, Managing Partner at Taurus, added: “Digital assets represent a major shift in the industry and we see an acceleration in demand since 2020. We are pleased to collaborate with Temenos, the world-leading banking software, and be able to make available our technology to Temenos’ client base of more than 3,000 banks and financial institutions worldwide. Taurus end-to-end platform will allow Temenos clients to manage any digital asset and create products in a couple of clicks.”

Temenos MarketPlace is a partner ecosystem of over 50 best-in-class fintech solutions, enabling Temenos' clients to innovate fast, differentiate, and ultimately deliver a better banking experience for customers. MarketPlace solutions are pre-integrated for rapid implementation and time-to-value.

Register for TCF Online 2021 to learn more about Temenos MarketPlace. TCF Online is a free to attend virtual event that brings the key announcements, customer insights and latest software demonstrations from Temenos. 

The NWSL sponsorship also underscores Mastercard’s commitment to diversity and inclusion on and off the pitch. As part of this partnership, Mastercard will create a soccer-themed curriculum for its signature science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) program, Girls4Tech™. Mastercard will also dedicate time and resources to educating players on their own financial wellness, better enabling them to pursue opportunities that will bring more ubiquity to sports across gender.

“I’m thrilled to be a global ambassador for Mastercard,” explained NWSL star player and Mastercard Global Brand Ambassador, Crystal Dunn. “Our values are aligned in connection, diversity and inclusion. I am confident that together we will build priceless opportunities for women’s soccer fans and players across the country.”

Mastercard believes too much of our world was designed without women in mind – and without women involved. The company has committed to leading the charge in reshaping the way our world is designed, coded and constructed by bringing diverse perspectives to the table to unlock powerful ideas that open up our industry and the world’s possibilities to women. 

Mastercard’s investment in women’s sports spans players, teams, competitions and now the most recognized women’s soccer league in the world with the NWSL. Over the past decade, Mastercard has developed one of the most well-rounded women’s sports portfolios globally. This includes partnerships across tennis, golf, football and rugby, as well as sponsoring players, teams and events, such as Naomi Osaka, Kadeisha Buchanan, Pernille Harder, Ada Hegerberg, Sam Kerr, Saki Kumagai, Wendie Renard, Alex Scott, Brooke Henderson, Annika Sorenstam, Chanel Alberts, Piwokuhle Nyanda, Arsenal W.F.C., CBF Women’s team, Olympique Lyonnais Féminin, Copa America Women, The Australian Open and The AIG Women’s Open, among others.