ClearBank, the cloud-based clearing bank, today announced it is supporting RationalFX, a leading UK payments and foreign exchange provider, with a range of tailored payments services that will improve the visibility, liquidity and control of funds for RationalFX’s customers. The partnership will allow RationalFX and Xendpay – both part of the Rational Group – to offer customers a combination of sort code, account numbers and an addressable IBAN. The companies also gain access to real-time Faster Payments, BACS and CHAPS payment rails. 

Founded in 2005, RationalFX was one of the first non-bank Financial Institutions to be named an Authorised Payment Institution. The firm offers market-leading deliverable FX services to individuals, SMEs and corporates, and continues to build on its impressive product suite in response to evolving client needs. Most recently, RationalFX has focused its efforts on building a tech-stack that accelerated customer payments, provided smoother onboarding, and gave better visibility on funds.

With this partnership, RationalFX customers can now bid goodbye to error-prone transactions references and incorrect reconciliation. With its own IBAN accounts, customers can transfer funds in and out directly, using just their account number and sort code, with automatic reconciliation built-in to ensure balances are updated in real-time. Furthermore, these accounts are connected to Faster Payments, BACS and CHAPS, allowing flexible usage by customers with varying use-cases.  

RationalFX has seen immense client demand for these services and opened more than 10,000 virtual customer accounts in January alone. 

ClearBank and RationalFX are connected exclusively using APIs. Operationally, this is the most efficient method to ensure high levels of low to no-touch processing. For RationalFX, this is also foundational – this technical architecture allows them to add products in the future easily, such as Cards, e-wallets among others, without disturbing the other products. 

“Our clients expect us to uphold exacting product standards, therefore we needed a partner who could deliver not just innovative technology, but also tailor it to our specific needs,” said Bhavin Vaghela, Global Head of Strategic Partnerships at RationalFX. “ClearBank has helped us to dramatically improve our customer experience and operational efficiencies through a broader range of payments services. Now, through an API, we can open thousands of accounts at a touch of a button. This turbocharges the value we can add to clients on a daily basis and we look forward to working with ClearBank to further evolve our payment proposition.” 

“The FX and international payment sectors are beset by technological inefficiencies. Segregating and managing customer accounts is just one of many issues facing firms like RationalFX,” said Charles McManus, CEO at ClearBank. “Through our work with major institutions in this space we have created and honed dedicated tools – like virtual accounts – to tackle these complex and thorny issues. Not only has this eliminated an enormous administrative burden, it has also improved the customer experience and helped RationalFX boost customer retention in an increasingly crowded market.” 

Symphony Communication Services (Symphony) and AccessFintech today announced a partnership to extend data sharing, communications and workflow collaboration across their platforms.  

The partnership combines Symphony’s collaboration and communication platform with AccessFintech’s data management and workflow network solution to expedite the resolution of discrepancies such as trade fails and mismatches in the post-trade environment.  

Regulations such as CSDR in Europe, new risk management controls and an expanding partner-firm ecosystem add complexity to exception management resolution. Enriching AccessFintech’s workflow with Symphony’s communication platform further empowers operations professionals to expedite the resolution of trade exceptions with greater ease and efficiency. 

“We believe there is tremendous value in a joint proposition with AccessFintech,” said Brad Levy, President and Chief Commercial Officer, Symphony. Levy continued, “Our companies share a similar mission to enable more seamless collaboration and information flow across the financial community and this partnership furthers that objective.”  

An estimated 6% of trades fail and resolving exceptions is highly inefficient, forcing institutions to reserve capital on their balance sheets for incomplete and open positions. To help solve this, AccessFintech’s data management and workflow solution integrates with Symphony’s secure communication platform and trusted user directory of over half a million financial services professionals. Informed by details including role/function, title and location, Symphony’s directory expedites identifying and connecting with ecosystem participants for exception resolution.

Commenting on the partnership with Symphony, CEO of AccessFintech Roy Saadon said, “Financial markets have reached a point where participants are ready to co-operate meaningfully with each other, in a way that was unthinkable a few years ago. Our partnership with Symphony demonstrates that spirit of collaboration, both between us and amongst our clients. Cloud based collaborative working is here. Operating securely and seamlessly, the partnership with Symphony will drive efficiencies and reduce friction and risk across the trade lifecycle.”

Symphony’s collaboration and messaging platform was built for the needs of the financial services industry, with over 470 companies worldwide. The platform allows users and applications to share information in a secure and compliant way. In 2020, the company saw record growth with a 32% increase in monthly active users, and over 60 million messages sent every month, solidifying Symphony’s position as one of the world’s largest communities in financial services.

AccessFintech has created a network of participants sharing financial data and standardising workflows. Market participants use the network to collaborate on exception resolution, distribute data and onboard vendors to create a complete ecosystem for data and workflow management. Since launch, AccessFintech has already gone live with 5 financial products and is in proof-of-concept or live testing with another 6 products. The collaboration ecosystem has the participation of more than 85 of the leading global banks and broker-dealers, custodians, asset managers and has created workflow partnerships with industry vendors and peers. Settlement message volumes on the AccessFintech network have grown exponentially. Over the past 6 months there has been a 2.5 x volume increase, reaching 700 million a month in January 2021.

Tide, the UK’s leading business financial platform, has today revealed the large amounts of time and money small businesses spend on running payroll for staff, ahead of the launch of Tide Payroll.

A study conducted on behalf of Tide amongst decision makers at businesses with up to 50 employees* found that collectively, UK small businesses spend up to £1.7bn each time they run payroll for their employees, part-time and casual staff**. This is almost £300 per business, mounting up to over £3,500 over the course of a year. 10% of respondents said they spend between £500 and £1,000 each time they run payroll, 8% paying over £1,000.

The most common way that businesses run payroll is via dedicated software, at 41%, with 31% having their accountant take care of it. As well as the high cost of administering payroll, it is also a very time consuming task, due to the complexity. Business leaders said they spend 2.5 hours on payroll admin, each time they run payroll, which mounts up to 30 hours a year. This is precious time being detracted from time that business owners could spend on growing their businesses.

Tide’s findings come ahead of the launch of Tide Payroll, in partnership with KeyPay, which will allow business owners to dramatically reduce the amount of time and money spent on running Payroll. Tide will charge £5+VAT per month, plus £1+VAT for each employee payroll is executed for. This means that for a business with 10 employees the cost of running payroll with Tide would be £15 per pay run, or £180 + VAT per year vs the £133 per pay run that they currently spend, on average, which mounts up to over £1,596 per year.

Ali Travis, Tide VP of Business Services said: “There are numerous administrative tasks that small business leaders have to contend with that end up costing them huge amounts of time and money. Tide is dedicated to simplifying life for small business owners, with payroll being the latest task we’re tackling."

“The nature of work and running a business is changing, with freelancers and contractors being used more and more by small businesses. It is therefore essential that business owners have a quick and simple way of paying those who do work from them. Working out different tax contributions and salaries each month can be costly and cause a real headache - this is why we have created a product that streamlines the process and gives Tide members confidence that they are making the correct payments each month.”

 Chris Deeson, UK Country Leader, KeyPay said: "As experts in payroll we have witnessed the cost and difficulty posed by the traditional ways of conducting payroll. The nice thing that Tide is doing is to look at their clients and to rigorously focus on solving their real life challenges."

"Tide Payroll is simple to set up and delivers all aspects of automated payroll; be it compliance, pensions, accounting integrations and of course ultimately payments. This is next generation stuff, because nobody sets up a small business to run payroll, but everyone wants to be paid on time and without fuss."

Tide Payroll, to be rolled out in the coming weeks, has been designed with simplicity and cost cutting at its heart - Tide members will be able to process salary payments directly from the Tide account and do automatic pay runs, while feeling reassured that Tide payroll is fully HMRC compliant. This will dramatically reduce the time spent on previously confusing and costly manual processes.

Etrading Software, the independent, global provider of technology-led solutions designed for financial institutions and industry initiatives, in partnership with Artis Holdings, today announced the launch of its new loan technology to help provide automation and bring much needed efficiencies to the Loan Market.

In the Loan Market, where voice trading and spreadsheets currently dominate, Etrading Software and Artis Holdings’ new LABS system, brings efficiencies, by automating and streamlining aspects of the sales and trading process. In its current version, the aim of the system is to provide an aggregated database of client and trader positioning from disparate data points across the user’s firm, in-house trading systems, including spreadsheets and 3rd party data – such as Refinitiv’s LPC Collateral – to automatically facilitate the most efficient client targeting by the trading and sales teams.

In the second quarter of 2021, Etrading Software and Artis Holdings will release the WIC (Wanted in Competition) system. The WIC system is a portfolio trading tool which brings efficiencies by reducing BWIC (Bids Wanted in Competition) execution time, by automating and streamlining aspects of the trading process and linking Buy-side, Dealers and Originators of WICs via their existing systems and desktop. Specifically, it makes technological enhancements to the BWIC/OWIC (Offers Wanted in Competition) workflow, for example semi-automating the administration and data sharing, whilst respecting the current Dealer/Client information & value chain. The new system also creates a robust infrastructure for participating in WICs, whilst preserving the market accepted DNA of the WIC process. This significantly reduces operational risks for all parties involved and provides automated internal and external compliance reporting. The tool also enables management to understand flows in real-time and will provide a valuable source of data often lost through the existing manual processes.

Mike Lavin, Head of Capital Markets Insight at LSEG, said, “LSEG is committed to driving transparency and efficiency in the capital markets.  Enabling clients to use our tools and content in new ways, such as accessing our specialized LPC loan and CLO data within Artis’s Loan Technology, is a great example of this.”

Grant Wilson, Managing Partner of Etrading Software, said, “As financial markets continue to evolve, participants from all sectors are increasingly demanding more value from every interaction.  Currently, interactions in the Loan market are almost entirely manual and voice-based. There is a real need to address these inefficiencies through an innovative technology solution, capable of seamlessly integrating and augmenting existing workflows from primary issuance, through the secondary market, and ultimately to settlement. Our new Loan business has created a reliable and user-friendly data aggregation system built with front office users in mind. We hope to enhance our clients’ workflows and ensure they can take advantage of every opportunity to engage clients with individually tailored and targeted information.” 

James Haskell, Business Operations Officer at Etrading Software, said, “Etrading Software, in partnership with Artis, is delivering new technologies, workflows and partnerships to grow the resilience and efficiency of esoteric markets, in particular the corporate loan and mortgage markets. Our vision is to, in a corporately responsible manner, deliver industry-wide solutions that will create greater opportunity for all market participants. We are delighted how this new initiative is performing and helping to transform the Loan Market.”

Brian Callahan, a senior advisor to Artis Holdings, said, “Artis leverages Etrading Software’s technology development, platform business management, deep knowledge and expertise of the financial markets to deliver intuitive front office solutions that can be seamlessly tailored and scaled across asset-classes and regions. We could not be more excited by our new partnership to bring the new Loan business to our clients to help shape a more efficient Loan Market.”

equensWorldline, a subsidiary of Worldline, the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry, announces the renewal of its service agreement with Rabobank, one of the largest Dutch banks. Under the agreement, equensWorldline will continue to provide its wide range of reliable payment services to Rabobank and process billions of transactions per year, expecting volumes to further increase significantly.

With 9.6 million customers Rabobank is one of the largest Dutch banks, focusing on food & agri, retail, and private banking customers in The Netherlands and on customers in the food & agri sector globally.

equensWorldline has been providing Rabobank with a broad range of services for many decades; these range from extensive Acquiring and Issuing services to iDEAL[1] and processing of SEPA credit transfer, including Instant Payments, and SEPA direct debit. More importantly equensWorldline is ready for the future and looking forward to assist Rabobank in the ever-changing payments landscape for the years to come, jointly focusing on growth through innovation.

A sustainable partnership ensuring growth

In order to support its growth ambitions, Rabobank has decided to extend its cooperation with equensWorldline with another 5 years until October 2026. In addition to equensWorldline’s proven stability and performance, the local presence, innovative power and, last but not least, focus on sustainability convinced Rabobank to renew the contract.

Nico Strauss, Tribe Lead B2B Services at Rabobank, says: "As a cooperative bank, Rabobank wants to contribute to the long-term growth of individuals, sectors and society as a whole. The reliable services of equensWorldline form a strong foundation for our work. This strategic cooperation supports us in further delivering on our mission."

Andrej Eichler, Chief Market Officer at equensWorldline, says: "We are very proud to extend our partnership with Rabobank, which is a clear sign of trust and appreciation. The two companies have grown together over the course of many years of cooperation. We look forward to continue supporting Rabobank with our high-performance services in the future and to be their innovative and pro-active partner for the accelerating digital transformation.”

X5 Retail Group (“X5” or the “Company”), a leading Russian food retailer (LSE and MOEX ticker: “FIVE”), Sber and Visa have launched an innovative pay-with-a glance service at self-checkouts in X5 stores. Now available at 52 Perekrestok supermarkets, the service uses biometric identification based on X5's innovation lab technology and VisionLabs solutions. The new payment method is scheduled to become available at 150 Perekrestok supermarkets by the end of March, while in April several Pyaterochka proximity stores in Moscow are following suit. Visa is a strategic partner of the project. 

It takes only a few seconds to pay with a glance, and the service is comparable to a regular bank card transaction in terms of speed. In order to use the new technology, which is available to Sberbank clients, customers can select the Pay with a Glance option in the Cards or Profile sections of the Sberbank Online mobile app and specify the card to be used for payment. After scanning their goods at X5 self-checkouts, customers can select the option to Pay with a Glance, take off their mask for a second and look into the camera. Neither a bank card nor a smartphone is needed. 

The solution operates only on self-checkout machines designed by X5. Currently, the payment technology is available on 350 devices but has the technical capacity to be scaled up across X5's entire network of more than 6,000 devices. The option will also be available at new checkout counters to be installed during 2021. The basic solution uses a 3D camera with high detection accuracy and depth capture, allowing for easy and quick facial recognition that takes into account a person's height and changes in appearance. The high-resolution camera ensures a high level of security and prevents spoofing. 

Today's technological capabilities help us build a large-scale and cost-effective digital business rapidly, but also change the customer experience in our offline stores fundamentally. Biometric payment is one of the changes. Our solution is unrivalled both in terms of scale and quality of the technology. It features a user-friendly interface, quick checkout time, no additional devices, and strong security. The solution has been successfully piloted and is now ready for deployment

across X5 stores. Biometrics are becoming a standard payment method and might soon be available to millions of our customers throughout Russia.

Igor Shekhterman

CEO, X5 Retail Group

"In 2020, the first place where we launched this technology commercially was a Moscow coffee shop chain. Today’s launch of the project in one of Russia’s largest retail chains demonstrates that our ambition to develop innovative payment methods is shared by our partners, who are as eager to introduce them as we are. You don’t need cash, bank cards, or smartphones to use the service – all you need to do is ‘present’ your face and the payment will be posted. This is a fast, convenient and secure technology of the future, and we are among the first to be introducing it in Russia and worldwide. I’m convinced that contactless biometric payment solutions will very soon be used universally, and this payment method will become as customary as paying with a bank card or a smartphone."

Kirill Tsaryov

Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board, Head of Retail Business, Sberbank

"We are witnessing contactless payments becoming increasingly popular among Russians, and biometrics is one of them. Our data suggest that 74% of Russian customers have already gone contactless for their daily shopping. Undoubtedly, Russians’ aspiration to protect themselves during the pandemic has spurred the demand for non-cash payments. Interestingly, 54% of domestic consumers view contactless payments as one of the most effective ways to protect them from COVID-19 while shopping. Biometrics are convenient and empower customers to feel secure even if they fail to bring their bank card or forget its PIN code. We are happy to take part in this project and believe that facial payments will soon become one of the most popular ways of shopping in supermarkets, even after the pandemic. Our research confirms that this type of biometric identification is gaining traction in Russia, with 70% customers planning to rely on face payments going forward."

Mikhail Berner

Country Manager for Russia at Visa

"After reviewing the results of the first pilot phase and collecting customer feedback, X5 will determine whether to scale up the service across all of the regions where it operates."

 Drawbridge, a premier provider of cybersecurity software and solutions to the alternative investment industry, today announced it has closed a minority investment from Long Ridge Equity Partners. Drawbridge will use the funds to accelerate product innovation, expand sales and marketing activities across North America and EMEA, and continue investing in its people, platform, and client services. The investment follows a period of dramatic growth for Drawbridge. Over 300 funds in the alternative investment industry with more than $800 billion in Assets Under Management work with Drawbridge to build and maintain their cybersecurity programs.

Founded in 2018, Drawbridge’s solution helps alternative investment managers and portfolio companies address their growing cyber security needs by centralizing the management of a comprehensive cybersecurity program. The company’s proprietary technology platform helps firms navigate the evolving regulatory and threat landscape, manage governance, risk and compliance (GRC) requirements, and combat sophisticated cyber threats. The Drawbridge platform facilitates the creation of a resilient cybersecurity program for its clients in order to improve their risk postures, meet SEC requirements, and exceed compliance and operational due diligence requirements.

Drawbridge clients can easily aggregate cyber risk assessment data to drive analysis, determine program strength and create a roadmap and task list for remediation. Firms can easily assess third-party cybersecurity risks in the Drawbridge platform, which launches Due Diligence Questionnaires (DDQs) to third-party vendors, tracks responses and completion status, and stores all critical vendor information. Drawbridge clients can continuously monitor cybersecurity risks and conduct ongoing vulnerability scanning to protect against breaches. The platform also allows clients to generate policies for Cyber & Information Security, Incident Response, Business Continuity, and Data Privacy.

“Drawbridge’s success is a testament to the investments we have made in our software, service innovation and team. We are excited to partner with Long Ridge as we embark on our next phase of expansion,” said Jason Elmer, Founder and CEO, Drawbridge. “Our commitment to customer success and technology innovation has allowed Drawbridge to continue to grow even during a period of unprecedented global challenges. We’re grateful to have a partner like Long Ridge to support us as we accelerate our momentum, introduce new functionality, and provide our clients with the best products and guidance to protect their critical systems.”

“Alternative investment firms face a challenging threat landscape and escalating LP due diligence demands that can pose significant business risks and impede growth,” said Kevin Bhatt, Managing Partner at Long Ridge. “Drawbridge offers a unique combination of cybersecurity software and services to help customers manage their cybersecurity requirements through a single technology platform while reducing security spend and complexity. The company is well-positioned for continued growth and we are excited to partner with Drawbridge’s proven team as they expand their global reach, introduce new products, and continue to grow their impressive client base.”

As part of the investment, Kevin Bhatt and Jason Melton of Long Ridge will join members of the Drawbridge executive team on the Board of Directors.

LiquidityBook, a leading Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based provider of buy- and sell-side trading solutions, today announced that Stephanie Minister has joined the firm as Managing Director of Connectivity Services. In this role, she will lead a newly created arm of the LiquidityBook corporate structure.

Ms. Minister will spearhead business development efforts for LBX Connect, LiquidityBook’s proprietary managed FIX network, which enables users to interact with over 250 routing destinations across 80 markets globally in an intuitive and cost-effective manner. She will interface with exchanges, third-party network providers and institutional brokers in markets across the world to maximize network’s reach. She will also play a direct role in future plans for additional FIX-related products and services. This hire comes at a time of tremendous growth for LBX Connect services, which dovetails with the global demand for LiquidityBook’s flagship multitenant, cloud-based OMS. LBX Connect grew over 30% in terms of counterparty connectivity in 2020.

Ms. Minister spent the past 15 years as a project manager for global trading integration at ITG and, following its acquisition in 2019, Virtu Financial. In this role, she managed all aspects of the firm’s global vendor partner relationships, including business and client requirements, financial commitments, business contracts, project management and FIX integrations. Before that, she held senior sales roles at Instinet, Boston Stock Exchange and Bridge Information Systems. An industry veteran, she serves as a Governor for Security Traders Association (STA) and is a past president of Boston STA. She holds a B.S. in CIS and Finance from Manhattan College and an M.S. in Administration from Boston College.

Commenting on Ms. Minister’s hire, LiquidityBook Chief Revenue Officer Sean Sullivan said: “A large and growing number of firms on both sides of the Street are becoming aware of the pervasive influence of the opaque FIX connectivity fees charged by some OMS and EMS vendors and the impact they can have on a manager’s regulatory risk profile and ability to generate alpha. We’ve taken a different approach with a fully transparent commercial model underpinned by world-class account management and support. Stephanie brings an unmatched level of respect in the FIX community, and will be crucial in our ongoing effort to scale this part of our business. We could not be more excited to have her aboard.”

Ms. Minister added: “Throughout my career, I have had the pleasure of working with numerous vendors whose offerings played an instrumental role in the success of my organization. Now I am thrilled to move to the other side of the aisle and help buy- and sell-side firms access the markets with the help of cutting-edge tech, robust functionality and superior client support. LiquidityBook is a leader in each of these areas. Their growth has not gone unnoticed, and I am thrilled to have a chance to join the team to help fuel continued expansion.”