Cost pressures are driving banks in more countries to consider pooling or sharing of ATMs, which offers deployers a way of maintaining access to cash while reducing operational costs

Cashless payments continue to rise, but cash provision remains crucial

RBR’s Global ATM Market and Forecasts to 2025 shows a prolonged decline in demand for cash in several countries, a trend that has been thrown into sharp relief by the growth of e-commerce during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as hygiene concerns around cash handling. Nevertheless, banks are keen to continue offering cash services across a wide geographical area, while some governments are keen to guarantee access to cash for all communities. 

Deployers increasingly pool resources in the provision of ATM services

ATM pooling has been around for more than 40 years but there has been increasing interest in the concept recently, on the back of rising numbers of electronic payments and ATM security concerns.

Full ATM pooling involves deployers relinquishing ownership of their ATMs to a single deployer which operates a shared fleet. This can significantly reduce the cost to individual banks, while enabling them to continue serving customers in locations where relatively low demand would render a branch or multiple bank ATMs uneconomical. This arrangement is well-established in Finland and Sweden, for example. 

The three largest banks in the Netherlands are currently in the process of transferring their ATMs to the Geldmaat network. Geldmaat was founded in 2011 as a jointly-Owned cash management subsidiary and has since morphed into a fully-fledged ATM pool. Likewise, in Belgium, the four major banks have signed an agreement to jointly manage a single network of ATMs under a neutral brand. The first such ATMs are expected to be deployed in the middle of this year. 

While Europe is home to many of the established and emerging ATM pools, the study also identifies some notable examples in other regions. TecBan, which runs Brazil’s shared ATM network, has taken over most of the country’s previously overlapping off-site ATM estates, significantly improving efficiency and security in the process. The banks still manage their branch-based and some remote terminals, but TecBan is by far the largest operator of non-branch ATMs. There have also been moves towards ATM pooling in Australia, Indonesia and Japan in recent years.

ATM sharing allows banks to cut costs but retain ownership

Even in markets without formal ATM pooling arrangements, sharing ATMs through multibank networks is growing. RBR’s research reveals various approaches across different markets, with many having well-established ATM networks enabling interbank transactions. Some banks also utilise bilateral or multilateral agreements to offer fee-free transactions to each other’s customers.

Allowing cardholders to use any ATM regardless of branding is of course far from new. However, banks are increasingly looking to co-operate at a deeper level, sharing some of the costs and processes even if they are not ready to fully relinquish ownership of their ATMs to a pooled fleet.

Portugal’s SIBS links various deployers’ ATMs through its Multibanco network. All ATMs carry Multibanco branding and may also retain the branding of the deploying bank. The ATMs are all linked to SIBS’ central host, which provides software for the terminals. SIBS negotiates directly with suppliers and passes on the cost savings to the banks. In Switzerland, the ‘ATM Futura’ project has rolled out standardised multivendor software across all ATMs connected to SIX, the operator of the largest ATM network in the country. The arrangement also means that Swiss deployers can benefit from shared bulk buying of ATMs. 

RBR’s study shows that banks in numerous other markets have been seeking efficiencies in ATM management, including the possibility of greater sharing. 

Rowan Berridge, who led the research, commented “As banks face continued cost pressures and reduced profitability in the ATM channel, ATM pooling and sharing will allow them to maintain widespread cash services for the future in an efficient and cost-effective way”.

DocuSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: DOCU), which offers the world's #1 eSignature solution as part of the DocuSign Agreement Cloud, today announced results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended January 31, 2021.

"Fiscal 2021 was a milestone year for DocuSign. We became a pillar of the 'anywhere economy' that lets people increasingly do anything in life and work from anywhere," said Dan Springer, CEO of DocuSign. "In the process, we grew our business nearly 50%, reached almost $1.5 billion in revenues, and achieved a record net retention rate of 123%. We believe this performance represents an acceleration of the ongoing trend towards the digital transformation of agreements."

Fourth Quarter Financial Highlights

·       Total revenue was $430.9 million, an increase of 57% year-over-year. Subscription revenue was $410.2 million, an increase of 59% year-over-year. Professional services and other revenue was $20.7 million, an increase of 23% year-over-year.

·       Billings were $534.9 million, an increase of 46% year-over-year.

·       GAAP gross margin was 76%, compared to 75% in the same period last year. Non-GAAP gross margin was 80% compared to 79% in the same period last year.

·       GAAP net loss per share was $0.38 on 189 million shares outstanding compared to $0.26 on 181 million shares outstanding in the same period last year.

·       Non-GAAP net income per diluted share was $0.37 on 209 million shares outstanding compared to $0.12 on 194 million shares outstanding in the same period last year.

·       Net cash provided by operating activities was $62.2 million compared to $45.5 million in the same period last year.

·       Free cash flow was $44.0 million compared to $15.5 million in the same period last year. Free cash flow includes a portion of the Q4'21 repayment of convertible senior notes of $75.2 million.

·       Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and investments were $866.5 million at the end of the quarter.

Fiscal 2021 Financial Highlights

·       Total revenue was $1.5 billion, an increase of 49% year-over-year. Subscription revenue was $1.4 billion, an increase of 50% year-over-year. Professional services and other revenue was $71.7 million, an increase of 29% year-over-year.

·       Billings were $1.7 billion, an increase of 56% year-over-year.

·       GAAP gross margin was 75% in both periods. Non-GAAP gross margin was 79% in both periods.

·       GAAP net loss per share was $1.31 on 186 million shares outstanding compared to $1.18 on 177 million shares outstanding in fiscal 2020.

·       Non-GAAP net income per diluted share was $0.90 on 204 million shares outstanding compared to $0.31 on 191 million shares outstanding in fiscal 2020.

A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures has been provided in the tables included in this press release. An explanation of these measures is also included below under the heading "Non-GAAP Financial Measures and Other Key Metrics."

Operational and Other Financial Highlights

·       Convertible Senior Notes: On January 15, 2021, the company issued $690 million of 0% convertible senior notes due in 2024. The company used a significant portion of the net proceeds, together with shares of DocuSign common stock, to repurchase a majority of its existing convertible senior notes due in 2023 and intends to use the remainder of the proceeds for working capital and other general corporate purposes.

·       Credit Facility: On January 11, 2021, the company closed a new $500 million, 5-year senior secured revolving credit facility, with an accordion feature allowing for an additional $250 million capacity. The facility will help to further optimize the company's financial position and provide it with greater balance sheet flexibility to deliver on its growth agenda.

Outlook

The company currently expects the following guidance:

The company has not reconciled its expectations of non-GAAP financial measures to the corresponding GAAP measures because stock-based compensation expense cannot be reasonably calculated or predicted at this time. Accordingly, a reconciliation is not available without unreasonable effort.

Webcast Conference Call Information

The company will host a conference call on March 11, 2021 at 1:30 p.m. PT (4:30 p.m. ET) to discuss its financial results. A live webcast of the event will be available on the DocuSign Investor Relations website at investor.docusign.com. A live dial-in will be available domestically at 877-407-0784 or internationally at 201-689-8560. A replay will be available domestically at 844-512-2921 or internationally at 412-317-6671 until midnight (ET) March 25, 2021, using the passcode 13716345.

Leading mortgage technology provider Twenty7Tec, today announces that it has built a seamlessly integrated search facility for mortgage product, criteria and lender affordability calculations, delivering a single set of results across all three areas of eligibility, from one single platform.

This new solution, known as SOURCE Plus enables advisers to begin the advice journey in any of the three areas of eligibility (product, criteria or affordability), entering client data just once, before overlaying results from the other areas into one single results screen.

The product and criteria elements of the solution have been built by Twenty7Tec, whilst the affordability element has been seamlessly integrated into the CloudTwenty7 platform using Experian’s Affordability module, which provides affordability results from lenders via API.

SOURCE Plus will be available to all existing subscribers of the CloudTwenty7 platform, at an additional monthly cost of just £3 + VAT per user per month, continuing Twenty7Tec’s commitment to supporting advisers through the Covid-19 crisis by delivering market leading technology, at the best possible price.  SOURCE Plus will be available from the 5th of April.

Phil Bailey, Sales Director of Twenty7Tec commented “With our release of SOURCE Plus, we have taken the integration of product and criteria one step further, adding affordability into the mix and enabling advisers to search across all three areas from one single set of client data, viewing combined results on one single screen”. 

Bailey continued “Being able to offer a fully integrated advice journey across all three areas of eligibility will become the industry standard, and we are delighted to have delivered this solution.” 

Lisa Fretwell, Managing Director of Data Services, at Experian added: “Brokers can often find themselves capturing customer data through multiple systems, which only slows down the whole mortgage process and leaves less time to provide much needed advice."

“SOURCE Plus gives brokers access to quick, accurate and detailed affordability for lenders, making the process a lot more efficient. Importantly, more attention can be paid giving customers valuable guidance that can help make those home buying dreams become a reality."

“We’re excited to be working alongside Twenty7Tec to introduce the next generation of mortgage technology”

A STATE-OF-THE-ART SPORTING FINANCE PRODUCT is set to revolutionise how the multi-billion pound sporting industry manages its revenue streams by providing greater insight and analysis on the industry’s finances.

The system, developed by sporting industry and tech experts ClubView utilises the power of AI and data science to monitor performance, cost control and financial health in order to dramatically better inform decision making and enable enhanced financial governance reform in sport.

Believed to be the first of its kind, the ClubView tech product is designed to improve financial sustainability within the industry by providing clubs and leagues with the confidence to take a robust and proactive approach to better managing the ever-growing revenue streams within sport.

With many sporting clubs’ financial reporting either out-of-date or inconsistent, ClubView’s collaborative approach will improve and digitalise current methods - streamlining the whole process and bringing it into the 21^st Century.

Created by a team of award-winning ‘user experience’ designers, ClubView collaborates with governing bodies across a wide range of sporting codes to develop a League-wide technology and data platform that delivers comprehensive financial insight into any League and its member clubs.

Entirely self-funded, ClubView harnesses some of the best and brightest talent from ‘Tech City’ as well as a number of experienced industry professionals including directors with senior executive posts in UK football.

With this objective, ClubView’s team has designed a platform which will operate as a real-time dashboard showing how every club is currently performing as well as a bespoke portal that can be set up for Leagues, into which clubs will personally provide real-time financial information.

The platform, which has been purposely designed for easy use, displays business intelligence reports for each club, allowing clubs to compare and benchmark revenues and costs as well as the chance to interact on market opportunities and trends.

Clubs can then utilise such insights to immediately make actionable decisions rather than relying on quarterly or annual reports and then work collaboratively with their respective league to accurately identify costs and trends which may be unsustainable in the long term or alternatively even benefit their bottom line.

This will ensure accountable governance by sporting Leagues and empower senior stakeholders at member clubs to make informed financial decisions that will help to promote financial sustainability.

By working collaboratively with clubs and leagues in order to ensure the best possible solution for their needs, ClubView is also able to build financial data modules into the platform that assess a wide range of club revenue earning functions.

ClubView Chief Executive Matt Everett commented: “ClubView has been working collaboratively with industry professionals for the past year to develop our product and tailor it directly to the sporting industry’s immediate needs. We aim to make a measurable difference promoting financial sustainability in sport through the introduction of our bespoke technical and data platform – which will set new standards of financial governance across a variety of sports."

“Whilst the industry has begun to embrace the use of data to provide insight into other areas both on and off the pitch, financial benchmarking has seemingly been left behind."

“The sporting industry generates billions of pounds, yet surprisingly there is currently no tech support to effectively manage or govern the significant revenue streams that it enjoys – until now."

“Unlike most tech companies we are not aiming to disrupt an industry but rather facilitate change.  Our technology is not simply an ‘off-the-shelf product’ that dictates terms. It will instead work in tandem with sporting industry professionals to produce real time top level forecasts and build models which will be able to predict revenues, predict costs and forecast ahead – without compromising the privacy or competitive advantage of sporting clubs.”

“As financial reports are often submitted annually it’s difficult for club stakeholders and Leagues to make timely decisions and proactively spot issues before they arise. This is one of the main issues ClubView is able to solve. “

The company is already in discussions with several sporting leagues throughout the UK and Europe and in the UK has recently undergone a successful pilot at Oxford United Football Club in the English Football League.

Neo & Partners Global, a FinTech Company rigorously certified by the Singapore FinTech Association and recognized by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) serving the Capital Markets sector buy-side communities of commodity trading advisors, family offices, fund management companies and proprietary trading firms with its coined award-winning Trading Atrium, announces its push to the next innovation boundary in the post COVID-19 Digital Economy with live implementation of Software-Defined Network (SDN) foundation. This paves the way forward for further innovation boundaries such as edge computing and more.

Working closely with SPTel, a joint venture company of ST Engineering and SP Group, Neo & Partners Global has now innovatively powered its Trading Atrium business-class digital network with SPTel’s new SDN that now enables flexibility, scalability, resilience and “everything-as-a-service” capabilities, allowing rapid response to changing and dynamic capital market’s business needs, while improving total cost of ownership.

Adding to Neo & Partners Global’s Innovation culture, it had also uniquely implemented live in May 2020 its low latency real-time failover resilient network capability without sacrificing its cyber resilience. All set up in a state-of-the-art design befitting of the word Trading Atrium.

These advanced capabilities, in a traditional sense, are commonly found in large enterprises or financial institutions. So as a Singapore homegrown SME, we are proud to have carried out more-effective combinations that include the introduction of new methods of production, creating or redistributing value to make a meaningful impact to the Capital Markets sector buy-side communities of clientsthat we serve.

And we are honored and privileged to have SPTel supporting us in our pursuit of our innovation journey,” said Eric Neo Say Wei, Founder and Chairman of Neo & Partners Global.

“By digitalising our service offerings, we are able to better support businesses in their digitalisation journey and enable services such as bandwidth and cybersecurity which can be provisioned on-demand as well as as-a-Service. These solutions are deployed on a more cost effective model, which provide organisations with the flexibility to pay as they use and scale on demand, minimising upfront investment in ICT infrastructure. 

We are delighted that Neo & Partners Global sees the value in our service offerings and we look forward to partnering them in their innovation journey,” said Titus Yong, Chief Executive Officer of SPTel.

With an overlay alignment consideration to the MAS’ Financial Services Industry Transformation Map (ITM), the design philosophy of the Trading Atrium is simple but powerful: the sum of the parts must be greater than the whole. Neo & Partners Global continues its vision of being a change leader to position Singapore as a leading Asia financial trading hub, adopting technology innovation with soundness and deepening technology specialist skillsets.

“Everything we do in FinTech with Capital Markets in-focus must always have a larger purpose. The end result: Neo & Partners Global's clients can operate more profitably, continually adapt better to a fast-changing environment and grow sustainably,” Eric Neo Say Wei concluded.

Tinkoff, one of the world’s largest and most profitable digital banks, announces today it has integrated its assistant Oleg into Clubhouse, making it the first voice assistant, speech recognition and synthesis solution available in this audio-chat social network.

Oleg will be a full-fledged user helping room creators to communicate and moderate discussions in Clubhouse utilising its text-to-speech and speech-to-text capabilities (Tinkoff VoiceKit) in real time. Tinkoff’s voice assistant will be able to enter rooms, transcribe speech in real time, and stream the text in his Oleg in the Clubhouse Telegram channel. He can also moderate Clubhouse rooms, voice questions to speakers, remind users about time limits, regulations, etc.

Oleg made his debut appearance in Clubhouse on 11 March converting speech to text and streaming the results from the Tinkoff Investments room where Tinkoff Group CEO Oliver Hughes and other senior executives held a conference call to discuss Tinkoff Group’s financial performance and record net profit in 2020. 

Pavel Kalaidin, Director of Artificial Intelligence at Tinkoff, said: 

“Our voice assistant team is currently experimenting with various user scenarios in Clubhouse to determine how room creators or listeners can benefit from our technologies. We have already successfully tested Oleg’s ability to transcribe audio calls in real time streaming them in his Telegram channel. The feature was piloted in the Clubhouse room created to discuss Tinkoff’s 2020 financial results.

Oleg can also come in handy when listeners are unable to voice a question to speakers, for example when it is too noisy or they do not want to interrupt them. For such cases, we are designing an interface through which users can forward their questions to Oleg’s Telegram chat. Oleg will then voice the question with perfect pronunciation, keeping the user anonymous, if necessary.

One of the challenges in group speech recognition is the summarisation of information. Interjections, fillers and incoherent speech make reading even a good transcript difficult. For that reason, we are looking into ways of processing the text and capturing the gist of what is said to create a shorter and more readable transcript.

We are open to working with Clubhouse communities to make our voice assistant a useful tool for content makers and listeners."

Borsa Italiana has appointed illimity Bank S.p.A. (“illimity” or the “Bank”) as a Nomad (Nominated Adviser), a point of contact for companies that want to raise capital to consolidate their competitive position and speed up their growth process by listing on the Italian Alternative Investment Market (AIM Italia).

Nomads play a central role on the path to an AIM listing – simplified and geared to the structure of small and medium-sized enterprises – by assisting businesses wishing to open up to new opportunities for market access in order to consolidate their position and speed up their growth plans.

Thanks to its appointment as a Nomad, illimity, founded with the aim of recognising and enhancing the potential of Italian companies, expands and completes its offer thanks to a dedicated Capital Markets platform for SMEs. The Bank is specialised in this segment and, through its SME Division, already provides services aimed at supporting the development and transformation plans of the companies it assists.

illimity provides equity and debt capital markets services as part of its specific Capital Markets platform for SMEs, acting as a Nomad and global coordinator for IPOs and arranger for debt instrument issues.

The platform offering will be managed by a dedicated team of professionals led by Fabiano Lionetti (Head of Capital Markets & Treasury) and Salvatore Genovese (Head of Capital Markets Unit), reporting directly to Francesco Mele (CFO & Head of Central Functions).

Corrado Passera, illimity’s CEO, commented: “Becoming a Nomad will enable us to further enrich the services we provide for high-potential companies by assisting them in their growth and innovation projects. There is still great untapped potential in a very large number of Italian SMEs, and illimity intends to make every effort to enhance it.”

We are delighted to announce that BMLL Technologies has won the “Best Data Science Solution Provider” award at the 2021 HedgeWeek European Awards on 11 March 2021. Nominees were selected by a survey of over 100 hedge fund managers, and voted on by almost 20,000 industry participants.

BMLL was recognised by hedge funds for providing historic Level 3 order book data in a completely harmonised and information rich format alongside a comprehensive suite of analytics, all easily delivered and accessible in daily workflows. 

There is an ever increasing demand by hedge funds for more granular quality data in order to improve alpha generation and mitigate risk.  The BMLL Data Lab enables them to unlock the full predictability of pricing data, and go beyond the top of the order book to analyse long-term trends and backtest strategies with the singular aim of improving trading decisions and overall performance.

Paul Humphrey, CEO of BMLL Technologies, said: “We are very excited to be recognised by the hedge fund industry for the quality of our data science offering. Access to harmonised Level 3 data through the BMLL Data Lab allows our hedge fund clients to find alternative sources of alpha generation."

He added: “I’d like to thank our incredibly talented team for their continued dedication in building industry-leading analytics products for the hedge fund industry”.