Fintech firm, Gold-i, has announced that digital tokens from Bitfinex, a state-of-the-art digital token exchange, will be available to its clients via its Crypto Switch™ 2.0 digital asset liquidity management platform.  

Tom Higgins, CEO at Gold-i, said: “Bitfinex has grown a reputation as a leading cryptocurrency exchange and we are thrilled to be collaborating with them and offering their liquidity to our prime of prime, hedge funds and multi-asset broker clients. This further strengthens our Crypto Switch™ 2.0 offering, adding significant depth of liquidity to our clients. I believe we have an unrivalled offering in facilitating digital token trading and this will open up opportunities for Gold-i to attract new clients, resulting in further growth.”

Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Bitfinex, said: “Bitfinex has established itself as the pre-eminent hub for institutional investors in the cryptocurrency space. We are pleased that Gold-i has chosen to offer its clients access to digital tokens on our platform. This is clearly an endorsement of the high-level of scalability, reliability and depth of liquidity available on our platform.” 

Planixs, the leading provider of real-time cash, collateral and liquidity management solutions to global financial services firms, is delighted to announce that it has won the RegTech of the Year award in the US FinTech Awards 2021.

The award recognises Planixs as a leader in the US RegTech space and its real-time treasury software, Realiti®, as the most innovative regulatory solution in the US market.

Founded in 2011, Planixs works with some of the world’s most prestigious global financial institutions such as Santander, Allied Irish Bank, Scotiabank, SIX Group, Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL), Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW), Lloyds Banking Group and Zenith Bank, in helping them manage their cash and liquidity and address regulatory challenges.

Realiti provides firms with instant, real-time visibility and insight, allowing them to optimise their cash and liquidity and comply with regulatory requirements. With Realiti, organisations can ensure they meet global regulations including the FED, European Banking Authority and UK PRAregulations. The solution also incorporates stress testing capabilities, allowing banking firms to apply a range of stress scenarios in order to understand, monitor and prepare to mitigate any intraday liquidity stresses and to help size liquidity buffers.

Realiti is pivotal in driving operational savings and improving risk management for banks and financial institutions by ensuring they gain real-time liquidity control and ensure regulatory compliance.

The US FinTech Awards, organised by FinTech Intel to celebrate the achievements of the US’s best and brightest FinTech firms, were held virtually on 27th April, with Planixs selected as the winner by an independent panel of judges and announced via video during the ceremony. In announcing the award, the judges commented that: “Planixs is solving a really difficult issue tracking liquidity in real-time and has demonstrated the quality and effectiveness of its solution by securing many large institutional banks as clients.”

Neville Roberts, Planixs’ CEO commented: “It’s an honour to win the US RegTech of the Year and to be recognised for our innovative real-time treasury software. The US is a key market for us and we are working with many US-based banking firms and financial institutions to help them gain real-time insight into their data and improve regulatory compliance over their cash, collateral and liquidity operations – and we look forward to working with many more in the future.”

A huge jump in new pandemic-related threats, alongside a rise in challenges caused by enforced work from home guidance, is leaving open and insecure gaps in FIs’ networks. The findings released today within The COVID Crime Index 2021analyses the changing nature and impact of fraud, risk and cyber threats on UK and US FIs and consumers over the last 12 months*. 

According to the index, which surveyed 401 organisations in the UK financial services sector, three-quarters (74 per cent) have experienced a rise in cybercrime since the pandemic began, with 43 per cent of banks and insurers revealing the remote working model has made them less secure. Just under half (46 per cent) were also concerned that this has led to less visibility of potential holes in their network or infrastructure and a further 34 per cent of FIs believe their customers are now at greater risk of cybercrime or fraud.

Adrian Nish, Head of Cyber at BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, comments: “We’re noticing a clear collaboration emerging between different groups of criminals across the wider landscape of serious and organised crime. Fraudsters and cybercriminals seek to exploit fear, uncertainty and change, and the pandemic has offered them new opportunities to probe for weaknesses they can monetise and new ways to disguise their activity.”

He continues: “Attackers are building increasingly advanced capabilities to target core banking systems and becoming more aggressive, harming victims’ ability to respond to attacks. Online criminals have reacted fast, adapting their approach to hunt out remote working security gaps and prey on the vulnerable.”

FINANCIAL LOSSES AND BUDGET CUTS MAKING IT HARDER FOR FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS TO PROTECT CUSTOMERS

The monetary impact of online criminal activity since the start of the pandemic has also been significant. The index found that 49 per cent of UK banks and insurers saw an upsurge in financial losses over the last 12 months – the average cost reaching £575,915 and rising. 

Despite this growing problem, IT security teams are feeling further pressure from decreased budgets and team redundancies. On average, budgets within IT security, cyber crime, fraud and risk departments have been slashed by a quarter (27 per cent) and 38 per cent have had to cut back on critical IT security technology spend. Alongside this, just under a third (30 per cent) have had to reduce the number of people in IT security teams over the past 12 months. 

CUSTOMERS EXPOSED TO A SPIKE IN PANDEMIC-RELATED THREATS AND IT’S COSTING THEM

A secondary study as part of the index surveyed consumers to explore the personal impact of these increased attacks and found almost a fifth of consumers have been targeted at least once in the past year. More than a quarter (27 per cent) said they had been sent an email hoax relating to COVID-19, with 20 per cent also being targeted by text or SMS. Even when refunded, the average amount of money stolen by cyber criminals was and enormous £866. For those who didn’t see their money again, the average money lost was a significant £534.

A spike in online shopping due to the pandemic has also driven increasing cybercrime. Around 1 in 5 (20 per cent) said they had bought something from a fraudulent site in the past 12 months and never received their goods. This has led to concerns over sharing data, with 82 per cent of consumers worried about their digital identity and personal information online. 

More than half (54 per cent) of those surveyed believe it is the job of the banks to protect them, compared with 44 per cent that believed it was their own responsibility. Around 1 in 2 (52 per cent) said banks or credit card providers could provide more guidance to consumers on how to behave online to be better protected from cybercrime.

Barclaycard has launched a new market-leading, fee-free cash back business credit card, designed to support small and medium businesses as the easing of restrictions brings optimism for the months ahead. 

The Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card is designed to support SMEs with one per cent cashback on all purchases – the most competitive offer currently available on a fee-free card. This is in addition to up to a 56-day interest-free period, offering additional, shorter-term assistance.

Following a year of uncertainty, the new card rewards businesses for spending just as the economy opens back up. This follows Barclaycard research showing that SMEs predict an 8.1 per cent rise in revenue in 2021 – while nearly four in 10 (39 per cent) say they are feeling optimistic about their prospects*.

The card is available to all SMEs with a turnover between £10,000 and £6.5m**, offering additional support to help businesses get back on their feet after a challenging year. It also enables businesses to save on everyday purchases from leading brands and retailers, like Amazon Business and Avis, by opening up rewards that are exclusive to Barclaycard business cardholders.

Barclaycard Select Cashback credit card features:

• 1% cashback on eligible business spend every month (T&Cs apply)
• No annual account fees or fees for using the card
• Up to 56 days’ interest-free credit when the account balance is paid in full, on time
• Purchase protection and cardholder misuse insurance
• Access to a range of rewards exclusive to Barclaycard business cardholders

The new cashback card is the latest in series of products from Barclaycard Payments designed to help small businesses manage their cash flow and everyday expenses, with the lender named Best Business Card Provider by Business Moneyfacts for seven years running***.

Ian Reid, Managing Director of Small Business cards, Barclaycard Payments, said: “We’ve developed our SME cashback card to support businesses with their immediate spending and cash flow needs as many get back up and running over the weeks ahead."

“We hope by offering one per cent cashback on all purchases, and up to 56-days interest-free, merchants will have some much-needed breathing space as they look to emerge from the struggles of the last year, and into a brighter and more prosperous summer.”

Kelly Devine, Divisional President, Mastercard UK & Ireland commented: “We are thrilled to be working with Barclaycard to bring the SME cashback card to market, helping those businesses that have been hardest hit by the pandemic. Small businesses are the backbone of the UK economy and it is vitally important that we find ways to help them navigate these challenging times if we are to build back better.”

Leading UK banking software provider, DPR, has secured Hampshire Trust Bank (HTB) as the latest lender set to adopt its Savings solution for Origination and Servicing.

DPR's market-leading Saving solution covers all the modern needs for financial institutions to serve corporate and retail savings customers. The DPR’s Saving Solution boasts a breadth of features including digital journeys (multi-channel access via desktop and mobile devices), back-office automation and extensive integrations.

HTB is one of the UK’s leading specialist banks, providing specialist mortgages, development finance and asset finance solutions. HTB’s savings division provides award-winning savings products to personal and business savings customers, as well as corporate deposits solutions for businesses looking to deposit £1m or more.

The new partnership will see HTB replace its existing legacy savings platform with DPR’s Savings Solution. Bringing automation and integration to the forefront, the partnership will enable HTB to reduce the costs of onboarding new customers, remove manual work processes for its staff and utilise the latest integrations for Open Banking.

Nick Lawler, Sales Director at DPR said: 

“We are extremely pleased to announce this exciting partnership with Hampshire Trust Bank - they are a bold and innovative UK bank with big plans in customer service and digital innovation. We look forward to working closely with the Savings team on this new partnership and supporting Hampshire Trust Bank’s continued growth within the savings sector”.

Stuart Hulme, Savings Director at Hampshire Trust Bank commented:

“HTB is on an impressive growth trajectory as we strive to become the go-to bank in our chosen markets. The deployment of the best in digital and customer solutions are at the heart of our ambitious expansion plans and play a key role in the continued enhancement of our proposition. Our partnership with DPR will ensure we can meet our ambitious plans by enabling us to serve customers better and by upgrading our operational capability “.

NICE Actimize, a NICE (Nasdaq: NICE) business, and Refinitiv, part of LSEG and a leading global financial markets infrastructure and data provider, today announced a strategic partnership which will enable it to resell NICE Actimize’s industry-leading SURVEIL-X Holistic Surveillance Suite through both a cloud or on-premises environment to its growing customer base throughout the Asia-Pacific region. 

With unparalleled expertise in Asia-Pacific and strong established relationships with Central Banks, Refinitiv will boost the presence of NICE Actimize’s SURVEIL-X Holistic Surveillance Suite to new market sectors. SURVEIL-X offers unparalleled risk coverage for buy and sell-side firms, insurance companies, crypto exchanges, regulators and more, by enabling accurate detection and rapid, thorough investigation of market abuse, inappropriate communications, unsuitable sales practices, conduct risk and otherwise undetectable compliance risks to insulate firms from fines and reputational damage. 

The market in Asia-Pacific for financial market surveillance solutions is expected to grow at a healthy 11.5% through 2026, according to Data Bridge Market Research.  

“Refinitiv is focused on supporting our Central Bank and financial services customers as they expand their digital journey and adopt innovation throughout their operations,” said Alfred Lee, Managing Director, Data & Analytics, Asia Pacific at LSEG. “We look forward to aligning our considerable expertise, deep relationships across Asia-Pacific with NICE Actimize’s trade surveillance suite. Our joint effort is particularly suited to help Asia-Pacific based financial institutions as they work to streamline their journey to automation and increased productivity.”    

“With Refinitiv’s leading data and insights and unrivaled access to global capital markets, we believe that this partnership will rapidly expand the network for NICE Actimize’s financial markets compliance and cloud solutions,” said Chris Wooten, EVP, NICE. “We stand at a critical time to ensure transparency in the trading process, when many are working from home, with this partnership opening up great potential to provide enhanced customer support and services. We look forward to serving new customers and market segments across Asia-Pacific.” 

NICE Actimize’s SURVEIL-X revolutionizes surveillance by providing complete surveillance coverage with both AI-powered and traditional expert rule-based analytics, and advanced visualization tools, all on a cloud-native platform that enables more accurate and efficient risk detection and drives down total cost of ownership. 

For further information on NICE Actimize SURVEIL-X, please click here.

About Refinitiv Refinitiv, an LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) business, is one of the world’s largest providers of financial markets data and infrastructure. With more than 40,000 customers and 400,000 end users across 190 countries, Refinitiv is powering participants across the global financial marketplace. We provide information, insights, and technology that enable customers to execute critical investing, trading and risk decisions with confidence. By combining a unique open platform with best-in-class data and expertise, we connect people with choice and opportunity – driving performance, innovation and growth for our customers and partners. For more information visit:www.refinitiv.com.

 Hyland, the content services provider, has hired Will Milewski as its first senior vice president, Cloud Infrastructure and Operations, to support its cloud growth and modernisation strategy. Milewski will be responsible for positioning Hyland’s cloud growth strategy across its content services and intelligent automation product portfolio, while overseeing Hyland’s cloud services and infrastructure teams. He will report to John Phelan, chief product officer, to ensure the cohesive integration of its cloud strategy, close collaboration with Hyland’s executive team and alignment with the highest priority corporate and product initiatives.

“Hyland’s cloud-first vision and technology modernisation strategies are a top priority to deliver the innovative applications our customers expect in the new normal and align with business priorities to ensure future success,” said John Phelan, chief product officer at Hyland. “Will brings extensive cloud knowledge, experience, passion and business savvy we need to bolster our offerings and drive our cloud initiatives to the next level to best support our customers and partners.”

Milewski is a proven leader in cloud, SaaS, development operations and data centre management, with experience supporting digital transformation strategies while running large-scale, successful SaaS implementations. His background in architecture, run-time management, design, implementation, execution and operational excellence will support Hyland’s cloud vision to be the world-class leader delivering cloud-based content services and intelligent automation solutions.

“I’m looking forward to building on the cloud success Hyland has achieved natively and through acquisition and will work to accelerate its momentum to bring the Hyland Experience Platform (HxP), its multitenant, cloud-native platform, to market,” Milewski said. “Infusing my years as a cloud leader into a cloud-first product team approach will add depth to the overall cloud vision. I’m excited to join a company that places such great emphasis on delivering the best-in-class solutions for its customers.”

In his role, Milewski will collaborate closely with Hyland’s executive team and technology experts to align corporate and product priorities and ensure they are supported through simple cloud deployments. Building on the cloud foundation Hyland has built over the last over the past 15 years, Milewski will help accelerate Hyland’s path to modernisation to scale its services and support continued growth.

To learn more about Hyland’s cloud-first vision and roadmap to launch the Hyland Experience Platform, visit Hyland.com/Cloud

Osu, a new invoicing and payment-app for the self-employed, has today announced its partnership with leading Open Banking infrastructure provider Yapily. The partnership will see Osu provide self-employed professionals with a way to receive payments without fees or settlement delays.  

There are four and a half million self-employed professionals in the UK and until now, many of these businesses have had to rely on time-consuming payment processes riddled with frustrating issues to manage their day-to-day finances. At a time when the self-employed are already taking a hit due to the pandemic, eliminating the cost of getting paid and automating tasks such as sending invoices, accepting payments, and chasing customers is critical to managing their cashflow. 

Through harnessing Yapily’s Open Banking infrastructure, Osu is enabling a seamless payments experience for its customers. By building it’s payment request flow on top of Yapily’s API infrastructure, rather than integrating with a card-based payment service provider, Osu removes traditional pain points affecting the self-employed when it comes to payments, such as high fees, settlement delays, and error-prone bank transfers. 

Osu, which launched in 2020, gives freelancers and the self-employed access to cutting edge payment tools. Through its easy-to use payments app, Osu lightens the load for self-employed professionals across the UK, taking care of their business and helping them achieve more for their efforts: more earnings, more time, and more opportunity to build. A virtual PA working behind the scenes for the self-employed who aren’t big enough to have wider teams. 

To date, the Osu app has helped over 1,000 self-employed professionals build and grow their operations, assisting them to successfully accept hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of payments. With a recent seeding round raising more than £2m, Osu now plans to increase its customer base to 10,000 active users by the end of 2021.

Noam Nevo, CEO & Co-founder of Osu commented, “Our aim has always been to help the self-employed and empower them when it comes to managing payments - which in the current climate is more important than ever. Many of our customers are one-man bands or micro-businesses without dedicated finance or admin teams. Our app allows the self-employed to receive payments without fees or settlement delays so that they can carry on with their day-to-day with no worry of losing out on vital funds. Yapily’s infrastructure enables this to happen, so it was a no-brainer to partner with them.”

“We’re planning on introducing a host of new business management features this year, and with support from Yapily, we believe our offering will continue to make life easier for the self-employed  as they look to rebuild from a challenging year.”

Stefano Vaccino, CEO of Yapily said, “This partnership is an exciting development for Open Banking and demonstrates the benefits our infrastructure can bring to the changing - and growing - landscape of the self-employed. 

“The past year has been exceptionally challenging for the self-employed, so providing them with the right tools to alleviate financial stresses is critical for supporting their recovery. Open Banking removes hidden payment fees and allows these professionals to focus their time and effort on doing what they love.

“Our partnership with Osu very much aligns with our mission of driving financial inclusion. We’re looking forward to how this partnership develops into other innovative solutions that will, no doubt, prove invaluable to business owners.”

 Nutanix (NASDAQ: NTNX), a leader in private cloud, hybrid and multicloud computing, has announced that Coleg Gwent, one of Wales’ largest and top performing colleges has decided to proceed with its enterprise cloud solution in a bid to transition from local to virtual desktops, using Citrix as the preferred vendor for virtual desktop software.     

With an objective of moving away from the traditional classroom and adopting a more flexible approach to learning delivery, Coleg Gwent in South Wales soon realised that desktop virtualisation would be the best approach, being both scalable and robust and requiring minimal disruption to implement. The college decided on Nutanix enterprise cloud software, hosting Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops. Not only did this combination meet technical requirements but, as an existing customer of both Nutanix and specialist education partner ET Works, the college was confident that it would deliver on the promises made. 

“Having geared up for a switch from local to virtual desktops using Nutanix infrastructure and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, we were in good shape to deal with the unexpected. Which was just as well, because the unexpected was just around the corner and coping with lockdown was nowhere near as challenging as it might have been,” commented Evan Smith, ICT Infrastructure Manager, Coleg Gwent.

Following the installation of Nutanix enterprise cloud infrastructure in the college data centre and the configuration of the Citrix software to meet its virtual desktop requirements, the first rollout was to around six hundred on-campus Windows laptops. A rollout that proved remarkably successful with extraordinarily little comment from the users involved. 

“We had designed the Citrix virtual environment to be as close as possible to a local Windows desktop, and it worked. Once logged on, most of our users simply didn’t know they were on a virtual desktop at all,” explained Evan. 

The Nutanix/Citrix combination also scored when it came to management, with the ability to configure and manage the whole solution from a single console. More than that, the college can continue to scale its end user computing solution to meet the new flexible learning objective and do this almost instantly. A capability that paid dividends when it came to coping with the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown.

“Lockdown was a big ask for everyone in education,” said Evan, “but we had a number of advantages which made it easier for us to cope.  We were already using Office 365 so that helped, plus we now had a virtual desktop solution in place with the capacity to not only handle thousands more users, but also flexible enough to deliver access to online learning resources to staff and students locked down at home."

The team were already developing a virtual desktop profile for just that purpose, requiring only minor tweaking before it could be distributed. Power users running multiple screens could also be accommodated, simply by giving them remote access to their on-campus desktops to run graphic intensive CAD and modelling apps.

“Coleg Gwent has delivered a blueprint that other educational institutions can follow on to how to cope with planned and unexpected growth in end user computing demand through instant scaling of physical and virtual resources, which is clearly front of mind for many institutions right now” commented Dom Poloniecki, Vice President & General Manager, Sales, at Nutanix, Western Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa. “A highly available and resilient Virtual Desktop Infrastructure has enabled Coleg Gwent to rapidly accelerate and scale up a wider deployment of their chosen virtual desktop solution in order to keep staff teaching and students learning through lockdown and beyond.”

Beyond continuing the rollout of virtual desktops on campus, the college is now looking to support wider access to learning resources using students' own devices and custom apps. Smith is also investigating ways of accelerating desktop performance and further scaling the solution to handle the ‘new normal’ of flexible remote learning set to persist in the wake of the Coronavirus crisis.