Eventus Systems, Inc., a leading global provider of multi-asset class trade surveillance and market risk solutions, announced that its Validus platform has won the award for Best Sell-Side Market Surveillance Product in WatersTechnology’s 2021 Sell-Side Technology Awards.

The 9^th annual Sell-Side Technology Awards recognize the market-leading products and services designed to allow sell-side firms to operate more efficiently, transparently and judiciously, the winners of which are decided by a panel comprising WatersTechnology’s five editors.

“Eventus has had an extraordinary year, with its Validus platform coming to the fore in the trade surveillance market,” said Victor Anderson, global content director of WatersTechnology. “The platform provides the sell side with flexibility and customization functionality, while the large number of enhancements introduced to Validus during the course of 2020 offer new efficiencies, automation and other features that strengthen users’ trade surveillance and compliance programs.”

Eventus CEO Travis Schwab said: “It’s a tremendous honor to win this award in what has always been an incredibly competitive category among our peers. One of the driving forces behind the continuous improvements we make to Validus is the valuable input we receive from clients on problems they want to solve, new markets they want to enter and challenges they encounter from exchanges or regulators. I’m truly proud of our team that works closely with clients every day to solve real-world compliance problems and create measurable efficiencies.”

A new Automation Recipes tool in Validus gives clients the ability to automate a wide range of mundane, repetitive tasks, enabling managers to achieve substantial efficiencies while tracking relevant trends. For instance, Eventus staff worked with a large futures commission merchant’s compliance team on its efforts to manage cross-trade surveillance for global futures activity. Prior to the implementation of the automation tool, the team had to investigate and manually close out 5,000 cross-trade alerts per day, compared to only 20 per day after implementation – representing a 99.6% reduction.

In the past year, Eventus has also further cemented its position as a global leader in trade surveillance and anti-money laundering / transaction monitoring capabilities to digital asset market centers, playing a key role in helping institutional investors gain confidence in cryptocurrency markets globally.

Eventus won numerous awards last year, including the FOW International Award for Market Surveillance Solution of the Year (second consecutive year); the Markets Media Market Choice Award for Best in RegTech – Surveillance and Financial Risk Management; and the RegTech Insight Award for Best Trade Surveillance Solution for the Dodd-Frank Act (second consecutive year). The firm was also named to the global RegTech100 list for the third year running and in late 2020 secured a spot on the Chartis Energy50 2021 list, ranking the world’s major technology players in modern energy markets. In addition, Business Insider featured Eventus as one of its “Breakout B2B Fintech Stars,” and Financial Technologist magazine last month named the firm one of the Most Influential Financial Technology Companies.

About Eventus Systems

Eventus Systems is a leading global provider of multi-asset class trade surveillance and market risk solutions. Its powerful, award-winning Validus platform is easy to deploy, customize and operate across equities, options, futures, foreign exchange (FX), fixed income and digital asset markets. Validus is proven in the most complex, high-volume and real-time environments of tier-1 banks, broker-dealers, futures commission merchants (FCMs), proprietary trading groups, market centers, buy-side institutions, energy and commodity trading firms, and regulators. The company’s rapidly growing client base relies on Validus and Eventus’ responsive support and product development teams to overcome its most pressing regulatory challenges. For more, visit www.eventussystems.com. 

Almost every small business across every sector took a severe hit in 2020. But now a year later, embracing e-commerce and online payment methods have played a major role in keeping small businesses afloat. Digital payment transactions are up by 76% in Jan-Feb-March(JFM) of 2021, as compared to JFM, 2020. These and more insights were revealed by Razorpay, the leading full-stack financial solutions company, in its eighth edition of ‘The Era of Rising Fintech’ report today.

The 8th Edition of this report provided a detailed view of the evolving FinTech ecosystem, the digital spending patterns of consumers and an analysis of how digital payments performed in the last 12 months of the pandemic. The report also delves into a comparative analysis of how different sectors and payment modes performed in 2021, as compared to 2020, when businesses and life were hit by Covid.

Here are some key highlights from the report. All findings in this report are based on transactions held on Razorpay platform between 2020 and 2021. (JFM: Jan-Feb-Mar, OND: Oct- Nov-Dec)

-          Online transactions in JFM’21 saw a growth of 76% compared to JFM’20 indicating a large scale digital adoption by both businesses and consumers

-          In JFM’21, Tier-2 & 3 cities and towns continued to contribute over 50% of all online transactions

-          As tourism opened up, Jammu & Kashmir found itself in the top 10 Digitally Inclusive States/Union Territories for the first time, with a growth of 36% in online transactions in JFM’21 compared to JFM’20, ranking above Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana

-          Payment options such as Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) saw a whopping growth of 569% in the last twelve months, owing to consumers avoiding bulk payments and preferring affordable payment modes

-          UPI continues to be the preferred payment option followed by debit Cards, Credit Cards and Net Banking

-          While the beginning of 2020 recorded just about 500 transactions in eNACH payments, a new payment service that allows anyone with a bank account to easily automate recurring payments; eNACH saw a growth of 23,962% in JFM’21 compared to JFM’20, displaying a growing trend of businesses preferring digital & automated recurring payment processes

-          Travel industry has truly made a comeback with a 52% growth in JFM’21 compared to JFM’20, indicating some stability in the Travel & Hospitality economy, and also bringing respite to millions of people working in the sector

-          In the last few months, consumers have increasingly been ordering online and with that F&B industry witnessed growth of 69% from January to March’21

-          Schools, colleges and online educational institutes have increasingly been accepting online payments for fees & salary payments; reflecting a 40% growth in online transactions in JFM’21 vs JFM ‘20

-          Real-estate saw an increase of 65% in JFM’21 vs OND‘20, after a 14% decline in the last 6 months of 2020 compared to the first 6 months, showing green shoots of recovery for the sector this year

-          Mutual funds were the preferred choice of investment for salaried professionals, as the industry saw a 69% growth in JFM’21 vs OND’20, signifying increased interest to save taxes before the FY year ended and live financially healthier lives

Vedanarayan Vedantham, Head of SME business, Razorpay, said, "The last 12 months have been like being inside a time capsule. India's digital payments ecosystem in this timeframe has seen the kind of growth that might have happened over a 3-5 year horizon if not for the pandemic. A lot of first-time digital users and previously traditional, brick & mortar businesses have come forward to embrace digital payments. Over 50% of this digital adoption is coming from Tier 2 & 3 cities today, which indicates that this is not just an urban phenomenon. Small Businesses are providing newer payment methods and reaching out to a wider customer base that transcends geographical boundaries. All this is enabled by the convenience of digital payments, and we at Razorpay are humbled to support Small Businesses in their growth journey as Indian businesses and consumers together begin to build a Digitally Inclusive Nation.”

2020 brought in digitisation of Small Businesses at a much larger scale than Demonetisation. Having understood the many benefits of transacting online coupled with growing consumer preference, Small Businesses are expected to increase investment in digital technologies in 2021. Affordable payment options such as Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) have seen an increased preference which is expected to rise and increase transactions for SMBs.  

About Razorpay: Razorpay, a full-stack financial services company, and a recently crowned Unicorn, helps Indian businesses with comprehensive and innovative solutions built over robust technology to address the entire length and breadth of the payment and banking journey for any business. Established in 2014, the company provides technology payment solutions to over 5Mn businesses. Founded by alumni of IIT Roorkee, Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur, Razorpay is the second Indian company to be a part of Silicon Valley’s largest tech accelerator, Y Combinator. Marquee investors such as GIC, Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital India, Ribbit Capital, Matrix Partners, Y Combinator and MasterCard have invested a total of $206.5 Mn through Series A, B, C & D funding. Around 33 angel investors have invested in Razorpay’s mission to simplify payments and banking and redefine how finance works in India.

E-wallet provider STICPAY is signing a partnership agreement with online broker M4Markets, which provides trading services on Forex, commodities and indices.

The move is part of a recent drive to increase the choice of platforms STICPAY clients can use to conduct forex, shares and commodity trades. STICPAY’s customers will be able to use its e-wallet to deposit and withdraw funds and conduct trades from anywhere in the world.

The e-wallet, which incorporates enhanced anti-fraud features to protect customers’ funds, gives faster transfer payments than international bank transfers and users only pay deposit and withdrawal fees, with transfer fees covered by the merchant.

The deal comes against a strong rise in Forex trading - primarily corporate brokers – that went up 40% in 2020 in day-to-day trading volume compared to the past decade.

This new deal is the latest in a line of partnerships that London-based STICPAY has sealed recently to build-up its established customer base across European, Australian and Asian markets, which includes strong growth in South Korea, China and Thailand.

The fintech firm currently offers 33 wallets for both local fiat and crypto currencies, which include payment methods such as Visa and Mastercard, bank wire and local bank wire transfer in Asian countries.

M4Markets is one of the fastest growing regulated Forex and CFD with a multi-asset offering and a focus on trader experience. M4Markets offers low spreads and no requotes, segregated trust accounts and is regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the Seychelles.

M4Markets executive director Deepak Jassal comments: “STICPAY offers efficient, quick and seamless access to funds for our users to conduct the trades they want from anywhere in the world. I’m sure the STICPAY wallet will be very popular with our clients.”

STICPAY’s client service director James Bay says: “The M4Markets partnership shows that we are committed to offering clients the widest choice of platforms to conduct their trades.”

Fintech firm Monva has more than doubled its latest fundraising target, attracting over 600 investors and raising £451,905 via Crowdcube. This latest funding round comes one year after smashing its initial crowdfunding target in 2020 and comes ahead of a larger institutional round expected to take place towards the end of 2021.

Monva is a new smart comparison service which uses customer data and artificial intelligence to personalise and revolutionise the price comparison customer experience. The personalised service helps users make smart decisions which are right for them, while its technology and automation means there are less forms to fill in, making it easier to compare and buy. Monva’s customers also receive state of the art guidance and support through Mo, the Money Virtual Assistant, which guides users through the comparison search, assists buyers in making their decisions and uses AI and machine learning to alert users to new personal offers.

The service is the brainchild of CEO Steve Wiley and COO Stuart Wakefield, who previously held senior executive positions at MoneySuperMarket, MBNA and Virgin Money, with decades of experience in Fintech and financial services.

Commenting on the fundraising success, CEO Steve Wiley said: “We are once again delighted by the response of our enthusiastic Crowdcube investors who believe in our vision to deliver a better, more personalised price comparison experience."

“As a team, we are excited about our technology, which we are continuing to refine and develop, but even more so about the lasting impact Monva will have on users. As we progressively head out of lockdown, the need to manage money, get on top of bills, and address some of the financial challenges that the pandemic has caused for so many people is crucial. We hope through our supporting information and services, Monva helps play a proactive part in people's financial recovery."

“Since our last raise in May 2020, Monva has made incredible progress. We have hired several senior specialists; built partnerships with key brands to enable extensive product coverage across credit cards, loans and energy; and built key elements of our innovative technology through our Ai chatbot, online dashboard and foundation automation services.  We’re excited about the huge opportunity ahead of us to continue building Monva and developing the next generation of price comparison service for our users.”

Direct carrier billing (DCB) is the safest and most suitable payment technology for the new mobile economy; The two companies announced the launch of DCB Index to measure industry maturity in different regions.

European technology companies Evina and Telecoming (www.Telecoming.com) have signed a global alliance to work hand in hand in promoting DCB as the safest and most appropriate payment method in the new mobile economy and, in particular, for the fight against fraud.

The agreement deals a body blow to the mobile fraud that cost the African continent over USD 4 billion last year. DCB is the most suitable payment technology for millions of unbanked Africans who appreciate its unparalleled reach and convenience. The agreement between Evina and Telecoming; both with operations in 15 African, Middle Eastern and European countries; now makes mobile-based transacting even safer.

Telecoming is the leading expert in DCB since 2008 and Evina is the reference in the fight against digital fraud. With this alliance, both organizations combine their expertise to develop the industry and boost mobile payment security.

Roberto Monge, COO of Telecoming, states "Direct carrier billing has been growing in the new digital economy. It is a technology with enormous potential that benefits all players in the mobile environment. With this alliance, we want to place DCB at the forefront of the payments industry and reinforce our commitment to the development of a transparent, secure and stable mobile economy".

David Lotfi, Evina’s CEO: “The potential of DCB is widely underestimated by mobile operators and other market players. This is mainly due to the fact that DCB is currently adversely affected by fraud. By protecting the mobile payment ecosystem, we aim to sustain DCB’s growth and help all players flourish in this ecosystem.”

The alliance aims to educate on the vast potential of direct carrier billing through the DCBMaster service that allows users to measure their exposure to fraud, as well as their market and regulations knowledge.

The alliance will also enable the launch of the first global DCB indicator. This DCB Index will measure the maturity of the DCB market in different regions, based on the analysis of four indicators: Fraud protection, Innovation, Penetration in the Digital Industry and Growth Potential. 

TP ICAP Group plc (“TP ICAP”), a diversified global markets infrastructure and data solutions provider, today announced that it has launched the brand Parameta Solutions.

Parameta Solutions is the new identity of TP ICAP’s data and analytics and post-trade offerings.  The business provides clients with unbiased OTC content and proprietary data, in-depth insights across price discovery, risk management, benchmark and indices and pre and post-trade analytics.  Its nascent post-trade solutions offering will help market participants control counterparty and regulatory risks through a growing range of tools that manage balance sheet exposure, as well as compression and optimisation services.

Nicolas Breteau, CEO of TP ICAP Group, said: “The Parameta Solutions business is an engine of sustainable growth and diversification for our Group.  Its strategy is to develop new products, provide new methods of distribution and grow its client base by expanding its presence with the buy side".

“Giving the business a new, distinct identity will accelerate the execution of this strategy, better enabling it to develop new partnerships, work with third party data sources, and diversify its offering beyond raw data to include benchmarks, indices and post trade solutions.”

Eric Sinclair, CEO of Parameta Solutions added: “By providing valuable OTC market data, we make it easier for our clients to manage complex markets where quality pricing data is scarce.  We aim to develop our offering to provide tailored data-powered solutions that create possibilities and value, distributing these solutions from enterprise to cloud delivery, via channel partners, or direct via the Parameta Solutions webstore.”

Parameta Solutions is the flagship brand of TP ICAP’s Data & Analytics division, which in 2020 posted a 9% increase in revenues (in constant currency) at £145m.  Other brands within the division include Tullett Prebon Information, PVM Data Services, ICAP Information, Liquidnet Investment Analytics and Burton-Taylor Consulting.

4OTC, the FinTech provider of connectivity services for Digital Assets and FX, today announced that Russell Fernandes and Mark Price have joined Alexis Atkinson as Co-Founders.

Russell Fernandes is well known for his market and technical expertise and previously worked at Rabobank for 20 years, where he was ultimately Head of FX Development. In this role he was responsible for developing and maintaining multiple mission critical systems in FX spot and derivatives electronic pricing, trading and risk management.

Mark Price, a renowned low latency and high-performance software practitioner, was previously an independent consultant, where he developed several low latency matching engines for FX and Crypto clients. Prior to this, he was Lead Performance Engineer at LMAX Exchange, where he led the team responsible for application performance and systems-tuning strategies to deliver a low latency venue.

Russell Fernandes, Co-Founder said, “Institutions are increasingly looking to expand into Digital Assets, but market fragmentation and a lack of institutional grade infrastructure are significant barriers to adoption and efficiency. I have seen first-hand the need for a service like 4OTC which allows clients to quickly connect to multiple FX and Digital Assets venues and liquidity providers using a robust, high performance product. This enables clients to focus on business value, maximising efficiency and profit.”

Mark Price, Co-Founder said, “Responding to the demands of Institutional FX and Digital Assets traders, our purpose-built single API delivers low latency connectivity, which is highly scalable, robust and secure. With new trading venues launching frequently we have also made speed of onboarding a differentiator for our service, where we typically have clients and venues up and running in a matter of hours. We aim to do the hard work of integration for our clients, providing a single, convenient interface to many disparate providers.”

Alexis Atkinson, Co-Founder said, “Russell, Mark and I have a shared goal of providing best in class infrastructure for OTC markets, where there is significant change in the FX market in particular, in part driven by the increased adoption and usage of Digital Assets such as Bitcoin. With our 1API service, we make it significantly quicker and easier for institutions to connect to both FX and Digital Asset markets. Combining our experience of capital markets technology and client relationships, we’re looking forward to working together to address the needs of the institutional market during a period of exciting change.”

4OTC provides technology to address the challenges of OTC trading desks in the FX and Digital Asset markets. In February, it announced that its 1API was being used by Cobalt, the FX and Digital Asset infrastructure provider, to connect with market data, providing Cobalt with increased access to market data venues. 4OTC’s 1API delivers low latency, highly scalable and secure connectivity for banks, market makers and buy-side trading firms. The service connects to multiple liquidity providers and venues in Digital Assets and FX markets. 

As the next set of lockdown restrictions lift this week, smart money app Yolt’s user data* reveals our financial habits paint a mixed picture when it comes to post pandemic optimism:

• Two in five (38%) are extremely worried about their financial future**
• Only a third (35%) who managed to save during lockdown plan to spend their savings once restrictions lift**
• UK consumers’ top savings goals in Q1 2021 were, an emergency fund (44%) and saving for a holiday abroad (26%)**
• The cost of living is creeping up, with essential bills such as groceries and mortgage/rent increasing by an average of 3.5% per month
• When looking at savings behaviours, on average there were 15.4% more withdrawals than deposits into savings per month

Pauline van Brakel, Chief Product Officer at Yolt, comments: “It’s a tale of two halves when it comes to post- lockdown optimism, with the priority savings goal an emergency fund, closely followed by saving for a holiday, suggesting people are preparing for the worst, whilst also holding on to hope for the future. Similarly, there is a divide when looking at how consumers feel about their financial future and what they plan to do with their savings once restrictions fully lift, with around two in five saying they remain extremely worried, and a third planning to spend what they’ve accrued during lockdown. We can already see savings withdrawals being higher than deposits, indicating people are already changing their behaviour."

“It's likely to be a bumpy road to recovery. On top of this, for many the true financial pinch may not have been fully felt yet, with some incomes having been propped up by the Government’s various initiatives, such as the furlough scheme. Now, perhaps more than ever, is a time for people to be engaging with their finances, using digital tools and services to help them spend smart, save where possible and identify areas where they may be able to cut back.”

A European investment company RoboMarkets, providing financial services to clients in many countries of Europe, reports an update on the R Trader multi-asset trading platform. Over 650 new stocks have been added alongside several innovations in both desktop and mobile R Trader versions.

New trading instruments on R Trader

Over 650 new US Stocks CFDs and US Stocks have been added this quarter, including the IPOs of such companies as Airbnb, Roblox, Coupang, Bumble, Affirm. New instruments are added on the day of the IPO when the first trades in the exchange starts. Also, all SPACs via which companies enter the market are added.

Updates of the R Trader web terminal

1. Main Corporate actions are now presented right on the chart.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/522175e6-5ffc-4d3a-b9e2-d27ced326dc3

2. Accounts in the terminal can now be hidden.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/69e851c3-91d3-4a4e-8647-097813289864

3. Tai and Portuguese languages are now available in the terminal.

4. UK Top Losers, Gainers, Volume Leaders have been added.

5. Order and trade history can now be filtered by instrument.

6. Server time has been added to the footer and client time — to Contract specifications.

7. Keyboard navigation by the Watchlists has been added.

8. Indicators and other tech analysis elements can now be deleted by the Delete key on the keyboard.

R Trader Mobile updates

1. Watchlist grouping and editing have been added.

2. Indicators and other chart types have been added to Charts.

3. Corporate actions have been added.

"The R Trader multi-asset trading platform develops and improves every day. This has been the third massive upgrade of the web and mobile versions throughout the year. We've added more than 650 new stocks including the most trendy companies that have just carried out IPOs as well as all available SPACs. We've improved the function part, issuing the already-planned updates and adding the long-asked opportunities. We'll go on improving the project by our strategic plan," commented Kiryl Kirychenka, Head of R Trader project.

About RoboMarkets
RoboMarkets is an investment company with the CySEC license No. 191/13. RoboMarkets offers investment services in many European countries by providing traders, who work on financial market, with access to its proprietary trading platforms. More detailed information about the Company’s products and activities can be found on the official website at https://www.robomarkets.com/.

Ebury, a leading global FinTech, has moved onwards and upwards in the latest Bloomberg FX forecast rankings for Q1 2021.

Following on from being named as the number one EUR/USD forecaster in Q4 2020, Ebury has been ranked among the top forecasters for a total of eight currency crosses in the first quarter of this year, including a handful of major G10 currencies.

Ebury was also ranked as the most accurate forecaster for the USD/SEK cross and the fourth most accurate for EUR/SEK.

Other noteworthy achievements include being named as the second most accurate forecaster for the Mexican peso (MXN), Chilean peso (CLP) and the Romanian leu (RON).

Bloomberg’s rankings are based on three rigorous criteria:

• Margin of error
• Timing (for identical forecasts, earlier ones receive more credit)
• Directional accuracy (movements with the currency’s overall direction).

Full list of Ebury rankings:

• USD/SEK #1
• USD/CLP #2
• USD/MXN #2
• EUR/RON #2
• USD/RON #2
• EUR/SEK #4
• USD/CHF #9
• EUR/JPY #9

About Ebury

Ebury is one of the world's leading Fintech companies providing global transaction banking services to businesses.

Founded in London in 2009, Ebury currently has offices in 20 countries, employs over 1,000 people and works with over 50,000 corporate clients. Ebury has been present in France since 2016 when it opened its first French office in Paris.

Ebury offers a wide range of transactional services to support companies importing or exporting, including international payments in over 100 currencies, current accounts in over 30 values and over 20 countries, access to flexible exchange rate hedging products in over 130 currencies, accessible in a simple and transparent way through a single digital platform, 24 hours a day.