EQUOS, Diginex’s institutional-grade cryptocurrency exchange, has today announced its launch of Ethereum (ETH) Perpetual Futures (ETH/USDC[F]), to provide investors with the opportunity to trade and hedge in all market conditions.

This launch follows the EQUOS’ Bitcoin Perpetual Futures (BTC/USDC [F]), which was introduced to EQUOS customers in early January. It is part of the continuing roadmap for EQUOS in its mission to create the industry-leading derivatives trading venue, for both institutional and individual investors.

The EQUOS ETH Perpetual Future is designed to allow professional traders and institutional investors to take a directional position on ETH using USDC as collateral, in an environment that is fair and transparent. EQUOS does not market make on its own exchange: prices and liquidity are provided by independent market makers only, ensuring equal visibility of the orderbook for all traders, and allowing EQUOS to oversee all the activity on its platform. 

Similar to the BTC Perpetual Future offered by EQUOS, the new ETH Perpetual Future will also be underpinned by a Liquidation Platform, with pricing, liquidity and depth provided by independent market makers. This design also allows for excess funds to be retained by the account holder, if liquidations take place above the Zero price, net of fees.

ETH is the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and is the native token of the Ethereum network, which is designed for smart contracts and decentralized applications. ETH primarily serves as a means of payment for transaction fees and has recently become popular as a form of collateral for borrowing specific ERC-20 tokens in the decentralized finance sector. 

Richard Byworth, CEO of Diginex, commented: “Derivatives, such as perpetual futures, play a key role in the strategies of institutional investors and are the preferred choice for many institutions when it comes to accessing cryptocurrencies. As such, they are pivotal in the growth of the digital asset class. We continue to add product to the platform allowing us to become a one stop shop for digital assets for our client base. We are dedicated to driving the rapid advancement and professionalization of the cryptocurrency derivatives market.”

Neil Sheppard, COO Financial Services at Diginex, added: “We have witnessed a significant surge in interest in derivative products in recent months, with perpetual contracts being sought out by investors for convenient macro position taking, as well as for risk management purposes. We are raising the bar for governance in crypto derivatives, by offering a trusted and compliant ecosystem which operates in the best interests of its clients.”

Fintech MONVA has today launched its latest round of fundraising, returning to Crowdcube one year after smashing its last fundraising target. MONVA is now targeting a further £200,000 investment via Crowdcube, 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 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.

MONVA is on a mission to reimagine how users compare and buy financial services and utility products, using customer data for good and automating mundane tasks. 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.

Commenting on the fundraising campaign, CEO Steve Wiley said: “We’re proud to announce our latest round of crowdfunding following an exciting period of development for MONVA.”

“Price comparison sites were at the forefront of the digital revolution in financial services. However, innovation has slowed, and the mainstream model has become outdated, predicated on the user doing the hard work and built on a noisy, icon led marketplace. Despite their growth, there remains over 80% of people in the UK who have never switched a product, or switch rarely. Our smart technology and money saving assistant, Mo, represent the biggest advancement in the industry yet. Our aim is to serve not only those who use comparison today, but also those who have been put off from making important financial decisions and the potential of saving money by using services promoted by gimmicks that do little to support the customer.”

“MONVA entered the market at an essential time for UK consumers. While COVID-19 caused a reduction in deals for credit products due to high uncertainty, this has given consumers time to consider their existing products and research new ones. As the economy and the financial services markets go back into motion and recover, so too will demand for price comparison.”

“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 technology, launching into energy and credit card switching markets.  We’re excited about the huge opportunity ahead of us to continue building MONVA and developing a next generation price comparison service for our users.”

The second edition of the Fintech and Digital Banking 2025 (Asia Pacific) IDC report commissioned by Backbase, reveals that Asia Pacific (APAC) banks are going back to the drawing board on their digital transformation programs. Digital banking fitness has been the key factor, with digital banks enjoying three times the growth in customer bases compared to traditional banks. 

In response, incumbent banks are reinvigorating digital transformation initiatives, having had to accommodate at least a 50% growth in the quantity of digital customer transactions and interactions. It is expected that organizations will undertake a comprehensive realignment of customer engagement projects, with the report having highlighted that digital capabilities are the key to resilience and winning the race to recover from pandemic-related setbacks.

New competition in an evolving banking landscape

While the APAC banking landscape saw the departure of some neo banks and fintechs due to COVID-19 challenges, the report predicts that we will still see 100 new challengers across the region by 2025. With new challengers presenting stronger post-pandemic propositions, there will be at least two digital banks in every APAC market that will pose a significant challenge to incumbents. Remaining neo banks and second-round players are expected to compete on being digital-first.

Some fintechs that had gained sufficient size by 2019 found success, gaining more market share than expected. Fintech categories that have typically shown success include payments, wealth advisory, alternative data, lending platforms, and account origination.

Traditional banks double down on digital

Meanwhile, traditional banks are increasingly focused on being digital-first. Innovation initiatives are expected to re-accelerate in 2021, and will most likely have a higher chance of success as banks restructure their agile and DevOps teams. 50% of Tier 1 banks already have agile frameworks in place.

The report also found that digital banks have seen three times the growth in their customer bases compared to traditional banks in 2020/2019. Investments in digital channels have paid off: banks have growing strength to acquire new customers, expand share of wallet, and push more products. 44% of the top 250 banks in APAC will leverage platforms with componentized modernization and API-enablement.

Strategic investments and growth priorities for 2025

Technology spending on governance, risk, and compliance saw double-digit growth in 2020/2019, while other areas of investment lagged behind.

The latest edition of the Fintech and Digital Banking 2025 (APAC) report found that 60% of banks in Asia Pacific will leverage artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) technologies for data-driven decisions, compared to 48% from the previous year. One result of this is a more humanistic type of customer centricity, as the economic downturn required banks to communicate with customers in an empathetic, trustworthy and reliable way. This has been complemented by the increased integration of human agents into customer engagement strategies, as contact centers saw surges in usage. 

A back-to-basics trend has also overtaken the need for new revenue sources. Banks will be focusing on digitalizing their core business of lending with some focus, subsequently, on deposits. New capabilities will be acquired from fintech partners: by the middle of 2021, 50% of lending decisions in retail banking will be supported by fintech propositions, underscoring the accelerating bank-fintech collaboration.[1]

CEO for Backbase, Jouk Pleiter, said,

“This report highlights the COVID-19 challenges faced by the various players in the banking and fintech landscape, as well as the need to accelerate digital transformation initiatives to thrive in a post-pandemic world. At Backbase, we are committed to future-proofing the banking industry for a digital-first world. We will continue to focus our efforts on helping our customers in Asia Pacific adapt and innovate at the speed of digital.”

Michael Araneta, Associate Vice-President of IDC Financial Insights, Asia Pacific added:

“The events of 2020 have shown the resilience of the financial services industry, and that organizations must refocus their efforts on becoming even more customer-driven and platform-oriented. The insights from this report will help banks, neobanks and fintechs identify key areas of investment in preparation for 2025 and beyond.”

Temenos (SIX: TEMN), the banking software company, today announced that it is partnering with Canadian Western Bank (CWB) on a pioneering innovation to support small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with financial decision-making and growing their businesses. The new solution, Temenos Virtual COO, is built on Temenos Infinity, the leading omnichannel digital banking product, and leverages Temenos Analytics and Explainable AI (XAI), API-first, cloud-native technology.                                                                                         

Temenos Virtual COO will offer relevant insights to accelerate the growth of small businesses and put business owners in control of their companies’ financial destiny. SME owners will be able to simulate different business scenarios with XAI-driven modeling enabling them to identify the best course of action for their business. The new solution will aggregate financial banking and business data to provide a consolidated real-time view of an SME’s financial health, and lighten the administrative burden so that business owners can spend more time on their business. Temenos Virtual COO will enable banks around the world to deliver tailored experiences that help SMEs navigate a complex and constantly changing landscape, and provide an open banking ecosystem for a centralized, next-generation experience. With this innovation, CWB will cement its position as the trusted advisor for SMEs in Canada, and a pioneer in financial services. 

Temenos Virtual COO emerged from Temenos SME Think Space, an open innovation event of changemakers from across the industry. Temenos brought together SME owners, banks and technology partners in a two-day design sprint and hackathon to generate new ideas on how to solve the biggest challenges for SMEs. During that event, the delegates identified needs that aren’t currently being fulfilled by financial institutions – a heavy administrative burden and a lack of meaningful insight to support growth. This feedback became the driving force behind the collaboration between Temenos and CWB on Temenos Virtual COO. 

Following the Temenos SME Think Space event, CWB partnered with Temenos on a 12-week Innovation Proof of Concept for Virtual COO. As part of the design process, Temenos and CWB applied feedback from local small business owners into the prototype, and then validated the results. By applying Design Thinking, agile methodologies, and Lean Startup principles, Temenos and CWB confirmed the potential for Virtual COO to deliver business value to banks and their SME customers. Deloitte Digital will collaborate with Temenos to take Virtual COO to market. 

CWB is known for the relationship-based client experience it offers Canadian business owners. The bank has been a Temenos customer since 2012 when it began its transformation with Temenos Transact, the next generation in core banking. CWB also selected Temenos to deliver personalized, end-to-end digital experiences with Temenos Data Lake and Temenos Infinity, forming a strategic relationship. Temenos Virtual COO is the next phase of CWB’s ongoing commitment to deliver a differentiated digital banking experience that empowers SME owners. 

Chris Fowler, President and CEO, Canadian Western Bank, commented: “It’s important now, more than ever to offer innovative digital solutions that ease the challenges that business owners face as they look to grow and maintain a business, especially during a pandemic. Temenos has been a key strategic partner for us on our digital transformation journey, and we are impressed with their focus and investment in innovation. We are excited to partner with Temenos to bring to market a data and intelligence-driven solution that will offer real-time insights and a holistic view, empowering SMEs to grow.” 

Max Chuard, CEO, Temenos, said: “We are excited to bring this Innovation Proof of Concept to life with CWB. Temenos Virtual COO looks beyond what financial services banks offer to SMEs today, to what they can offer tomorrow. Running Innovation Proof of Concepts like this enables Temenos and clients like CWB to identify new opportunities to lead by example. With this collaboration on Temenos Virtual COO, CWB will take its digital offering to the next level, providing an innovative customer-centric solution tailored to the specific needs of SMEs. We are excited to work with CWB on this initiative, and inspire banks around the world to support their local communities and economies in new and exciting ways.”

NYMBUS®, a leading provider of banking technology solutions, today announced the appointment of two new members to its Industry Advisory Board, effective immediately. The company welcomes Shelly Loftin, Senior Vice President of Retail Banking, Payments and Lending for the American Bankers Association (ABA), and Maurice Moody, Head of Treasury and Innovation at Synovus.

The digital banking executives join an impressive and growing list of Nymbus Advisory Board members, including Rilla Delorier, John Janclaes, James Robert Lay and Hunter Young. Their combined experiences are guiding more banks and credit unions to leverage Nymbus’ unique GROW business model which buys back decades of lost innovation time and quickly creates new digital revenue streams.

"The noise around what digital means for financial services can be incredibly overwhelming for banks and credit unions who, at the end the day, are seeking pragmatic advice for how to innovate and succeed in today’s environment,” said Jeffery Kendall, CEO and Chairman of Nymbus. “We’re fortunate to add Shelly and Maurice to our Advisory Board that was formed specifically to help our partner financial institutions integrate a precise strategy for quick and sustainable business growth.”

Shelly Loftin said: "Shelly is a longtime banker turned ABA team member. For the past 14 years, she has worked on branding, marketing and retail in several positions at various community banks. Prior to joining the ABA, she was Chief Administrative Officer at Bear State Bank. Connecting brand, culture and customer experiences across channels is her passion. She is a cultivator of member happiness and passionate about improving the experience banking business."

Maurice Moody commented: "Maurice is the Head of Treasury Product and Innovation at Synovus, a financial services company with approximately $54 billion in assets that operates 294 branches throughout Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee. He brings well over two decades of industry experience, including more recent career roles as the Head of Digital Banking at Umpqua Bank and Renasant Bank. Moody was directly responsible for developing and deploying superior digital experiences to ensure each bank was always current, competitive, and providing a unified experience across delivery channels for customers."

For more information, please visit nymbus.com.

Meniga (www.meniga.com), the global leader in personal finance banking solutions, today announced that it has partnered with Íslandsbanki, one of Iceland’s largest banks, to launch its new innovative green banking solution, ‘Carbon Insight’, enabling Íslandsbanki’s mobile banking app users to track their carbon footprint.

As part of the agreement, Íslandsbanki will integrate the Carbon Insight solution into its digital banking offering, which will help drive customer engagement, boost loyalty and create a more robust environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategy.

Meniga’s Carbon Insight solution will provide Íslandsbanki customers with:

• An estimate of their overall carbon footprint based on their spending profile, broken down into spending categories and time periods
• A broad understanding of the specific aspects of their spending that are the most detrimental to the environment
• The necessary information and knowledge to alter their spending behaviour, boost their personal savings, and crucially, help save the planet

As worldwide anxiety around climate change continues to grow, many banks are recognising the unique opportunity they have to serve the needs of the rapidly growing segment of carbon-conscious consumers. A recent survey conducted by Meniga revealed that 80% of consumers experiencing its technology now want to use their banking apps to help them estimate their carbon footprint.

Georg Ludviksson, CEO & Co-Founder of Meniga, comments:

“With more and more people around the world growing anxious about the consequences of climate change, the need for solutions and initiatives that empower people to take action to help protect our planet has become a business imperative. As custodians of our personal finance data, banks are in a unique position to play a key role in helping the rapidly growing movement of carbon conscious consumers make informed choices in their daily consumption.”

“We have seen great enthusiasm for our Carbon Insight product over the past few months, from banks and other key financial players, which is an encouraging sign from our industry that more green initiatives are still to come. For our part, we’re extremely proud to be leading, alongside Íslandsbanki, in the green banking movement and the industry’s fight against climate change.”

Birna Einarsdóttir, CEO of Íslandsbanki comments:

“Consumers are increasingly interested in reducing their carbon footprint and having a positive impact on the environment. Meniga’s Carbon Insight solution will enable Íslandsbanki’s customers to estimate the carbon footprint of their private consumption, identify carbon intensive  purchases and ultimately reduce their carbon footprint while saving money at the same time.”

Talos, an end-to-end technology infrastructure provider that supports the institutional trading of digital assets, today announced the hire of Alfonse Mandese as Head of Sales and Business Development.  

Mr. Mandese will be responsible for executing Talos’ go-to-market strategy, building partnerships and driving future revenue growth. Mr. Mandese’s hire comes at a time of tremendous growth for the Talos platform, which has been live since early 2019 and was publicly announced last fall. Talos’ extensive suite of solutions supports clients through the full crypto trading lifecycle, from price discovery to execution through clearing and settlement and across spot, futures and FX markets.  

Prior to joining Talos, Mr. Mandese led sales and business development in the Americas for Ledger Enterprise Solutions. There, he focused on the rollout of the company’s enterprise custody technology product, Ledger Vault. Before that, Mr. Mandese spent seven years in the traditional capital markets space. He formerly held positions across Institutional Sales and Trading at Citigroup in both New York and Boston. After Citi, he became a Regional Head of Account Management and Business Development at BCA Research. At both companies, he covered some of the world’s leading asset managers and hedge funds. He holds a degree in Economics from Franklin & Marshall College.  

Commenting on Mr. Mandese’s hire, Talos Co-Founder and CEO Anton Katz said: “The acceleration of institutional participation in digital assets over the past year has completely transformed our firm. As large institutions and service providers continue to enter this space and use our platform, we are really excited to have Alfonse join the team and lead our Business Development and Sales efforts going forward. His portfolio of experience has the ideal combination of traditional capital markets and institutional crypto, which will be crucial to our ongoing effort to scale our business. We could not be more excited to have him as part of our team, and look forward to setting the bar even higher in 2021.”

Mr. Mandese said: “Having worked in business development and sales within both the traditional finance and digital assets space, I’ve had the opportunity to learn the importance of a defined, yet flexible, growth strategy that will position me to thrive in this role. Talos’ recent success is nothing short of inspiring and I am looking forward to contributing to the company’s continued expansion. Anton Katz, Ethan Feldman and the Talos team have built an offering unlike anything this industry has seen before. Talos is truly pioneering the institutional crypto space, and I’m eager to get started.”

 Aquarius Financial Technologies Ltd. (Aquarius), a next generation trading technology provider, today announced a strategic partnership with  CQG a leading global provider of high-performance technology solutions for traders, brokers, commercial hedgers, and exchanges. The partnership will support Aquarius’ vision to launch an institutional-grade global cryptocurrency exchange using CQG’s proprietary technology.

Under the partnership, CQG will provide Aquarius with its trading interfaces, infrastructure, and API connectivity, as well as access to more than 45 tradable, global exchanges and more than 85 market data sources. The exchange is scheduled to launch in the third quarter.

“We are delighted to welcome CQG as a key go-to-market partner,” said Richard Lane, co-founder of Aquarius. “We are soon to close our series A investment round at the end of March 2021, and this agreement marks another important milestone for Aquarius, enabling us to realise our ambition to launch and grow a fairer trading environment of institutional-grade standard for all customer types. We are excited to align our unique trade matching technology with CQG’s market-leading technical and operational excellence.”

CQG President Ryan Moroney said: “We are excited about the opportunity to play a role in supporting this innovative new exchange. We look forward to contributing to the future success of Aquarius with our broad network and deep technological and market expertise.”

About Aquarius Financial Technologies

The Aquarius team of technologists and traders have been developing next generation trade matching technologies for over 20 years. Its forthcoming product is the Aquarius cryptocurrency exchange. Aquarius’ team is based in Zurich and London and draws on its team members’ former experience at Goldman Sachs and UBS to set new standards for the world’s currency exchange industry.

About CQG

CQG provides the industry’s highest performing solutions for traders, brokers, commercial hedgers, and exchanges for their market-related activities globally, including trading, market data, advanced technical analysis, risk management, and account administration. The firm partners with the vast majority of futures brokerage and clearing firms and provides Direct Market Access (DMA) to more than 45 exchanges through its global network of co-located Hosted Exchange Gateways. CQG technology serves as the front end for a variety of exchanges and is increasingly employed as the over-the-counter matching engine for important new markets. CQG's server-side order management tools for spreading, market aggregation, and smart orders are unsurpassed for speed and ease of use. Its market data feed consolidates 85 sources, including exchanges worldwide for futures, options, fixed income, foreign exchange, and equities, as well as data on debt securities, industry reports, and financial indices. One of the longest-serving technology solutions providers in the industry, CQG has won numerous awards for its trading software, technical analysis and multi-asset trading platform. CQG is headquartered in Denver, with 16 sales and support offices and data centers in key markets globally. For more information, visit www.cqg.com.

Spryker, a fast-growing challenger within the commerce technology industry focused on innovating enterprises, has partnered with detected to bring detected functionality to its Marketplace Suite customers.

With extensive features and capabilities for both B2B, B2C and marketplace needs, 100% uptime during high-traffic times like Black Friday, and a Scrutinizer Score of 9.8x, Spryker is a major force in international digital commerce. Spryker’s solutions empowers over 150 companies to manage transactions in more than 200 countries worldwide with customers including Toyota, Siemens, Hilti, and Ricoh. 

Anyone buying from a Spryker-powered marketplace with detected functionality activated can now review a merchant’s business credentials in real-time by clicking the detected icon. detected collects this information automatically from data sources across the globe, standardises it and presents everything in an easy-to-understand format. detected is the only company in the world to surface this insight on a marketplace or e-commerce store’s front-end website.  

Alexander Graf, Co-CEO of Spryker Systems GmbH said: “detected’s internationally recognised mark is transparency which provides our customers with a solution they can trust. The right information in the right place at the right time ensures buyers can shop online with even greater confidence. detected’s technology reflects our vision perfectly - its solution is intuitive, loved by developers and consumers, and challenges the status quo.” 

Liam Chennells, Chief Executive Officer at detected said: “Spryker has built a powerful B2C and B2B suite of digital commerce solutions trusted by the world’s most credible brands. We are excited to provide Spryker customers with a powerful way of protecting both their own hard-earned reputation and that of their merchants.”

Spryker was included in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce and named a major player in B2B e-Commerce by IDC. The company recently raised over $130m in a Series C financing round led by Silicon Valley-based TCV.

detected is trusted by online marketplaces and e-commerce providers across the world. Customers and partners include Machine Compare, mellow.store and Kaleida in the UK with others across international B2B and B2C digital commerce in the final stages of deployment.

Today, TIBCO Software announced it has been named a Leader in the Gartner 2021 Magic Quadrant for Data Science and Machine Learning Platforms for the third year in a row.

“Data science and machine learning are at the core of the flourishing data-first movement. TIBCO makes data management, visual analytics, feature engineering, and modelling simple. Along with real-time, API-led integration and model operations, this enables our customers to accelerate digital decisions and generate extreme business value,” said Michael O’Connell, chief analytics officer, TIBCO. “We’re excited to once again be named a Leader in the Gartner report. We see this as validation for our data science platform and the continued confidence our customers have in TIBCO to deliver data science solutions and AI apps that move the needle.”

TIBCO® Data Science forms an essential facet of Hyperconverged Analytics, a unique approach to visual analytics, data science, and data management in event-stream environments. When these TIBCO technologies are combined in low-code workbench and developer studios, AI apps and data science solutions emerge as a regular occurrence, across business and IT operations alike.  

In the 2021 Magic Quadrant for Data Science and Machine Learning Platforms report, Gartner, Inc. evaluated 20 vendors, based on their completeness of vision and ability to execute.