Alveo, (formerly Asset Control), a leading solutions provider for financial data management, has been awarded Best Buy-Side Data Management Platform at this year’s Data Management Insight Awards, hosted by A-Team Group. Alveo’s award win was announced on Thursday December 3^rd.

The award comes at a time when, through product innovation, rolling out cloud-based data management services and recent client wins, Alveo has built on its strong position in buy-side data management, strengthening its solution throughout the end-to-end data management process of sourcing, visualisation, business user enablement, maximizing data ROI and data quality analytics.

The win can also be seen in the context of Alveo’s recently-released web UI Ops 360, which provides buy-side firms with optimised integration with content sources, easy data access via browser and APIs and full transparency on data flows.

Key capabilities of Alveo’s platform include the ability to help users source data cost-effectively, avoiding duplication and helping optimize data ROI. Through managed vendor interfaces covering product data, pricing, indices and ratings, structured data workflow and data lineage, Alveo helps asset managers sustainably improve data quality and productivity.

Mark Hepsworth, CEO, Alveo, said: “We are really pleased to win Best Buy-Side Data Management Platform at this year’s Data Management Insight awards. It is testament to our expanding buy-side client base and our ongoing product evolution. We are looking forward to continuing to work meeting these customers’ requirements in 2021.”

The annual Data Management Insight awards are designed to recognise the criticality of excellent data services and data management as well as a growing appetite for innovation. The awards are overseen by an advisory board who help shape the categories and review the nominations alongside A-Team Group’s editors.

Angela Wilbraham, CEO of the A-Team Group, who hosted the Data Management Insight Awards 2020, commented: “Our awards recognize leading providers of data management solutions, services and consultancy to capital markets and Alveo has proven themselves to be worthy winners of this prestigious title. We congratulate Alveo winning the Best Buy-Side Data Management Platform in recognition of their continuing excellence in the data management space.”

Fintech and trusted payment service provider Paynetics AD has today announced a partnership with UnionPay International, a subsidiary of China UnionPay, the international card scheme with the world’s largest cardholder base. The partnership will enable Paynetics to issue cards within the European Economic Area (EEA).

The move responds directly to the growing B2B and B2B2C marketplaces in Europe and demand for a payment network that fits the changing business needs of organisations which operate within the EEA. End-users will be able to access a wider choice of payment functionalities within a single platform, including a cutting-edge digital wallet solution, as well as benefit from a streamlined fee structure.

The partnership will help Paynetics to extend its reach across Europe for both B2B and B2B2C customers. Paynetics brings its deep knowledge of the specific payment requirements of these organisations, as well as its proven track record of supporting Program Managers, to the partnership.

UnionPay will enable Paynetics to expand its suite of payment services to a new range of businesses, from established brands to the next generation of startups, and continue in its mission to simplify payments, as Europe's leading regulated fintech.

Paynetics will issue UnionPay cards across the EEA, beginning in Q1 of 2021. Businesses and individual account users will have access to a multitude of features including cross-border transactions via secure, multi-currency payment solutions.

Paynetics is a regulated e-money institution which is licensed across the EU and is a Principal Member of Mastercard, Visa, SWIFT, and a member of SEPA. It offers next-generation payment technology solutions with an all-encompassing technology stack under one roof, including issuing, acquiring, state of the art payment services, IBANs, money transfers, eWallets, mobile payments and software POS.

Rob Anderson, Managing Director, Paynetics Global, commented: “We’re really proud to announce our partnership with UnionPay International as we have now become one of the most comprehensive and far-reaching card issuers in the EEA and have the backing of another of the top card schemes in the world. The milestones in our European expansion are coming thick and fast as we continue to grow rapidly, but it’s still of utmost importance to us that we keep our deep industry knowledge and technical expertise at the heart of what we do, as well as the care we offer to Program Managers around the globe.”

Zhihong Wei, Market Director, UnionPay International, said: “It’s a great pleasure for UnionPay to cooperate with Paynetics, who will provide European companies with a new option of payment card. With a comprehensive acceptance network of online, offline and contactless payment platforms, UnionPay has established a safe, fast and convenient payment environment for cardholders. We are looking forward to bringing a unique card experience to the EEA region.”

TransUnion has been named Best in Class among enterprise identity proofing vendors, after Javelin evaluated and ranked 26 enterprise technology providers.

Mitigation of identity fraud requires a combination of technologies that compliment one another and are easy to manage. Adding a new technology solution requires looking beyond fraud management to the customer experience, including all stages of the customer lifecycle. It is critical to have safe and secure onboarding, but identity management also needs to enable access and step-up authentication and bind the identity to the account — all while preventing account takeover, new-account fraud and synthetic identity fraud.

Key questions discussed in this report:

• What technologies are available that provide protection against account takeover and new-account fraud?
• What capabilities are available to fraud operations units for managing identity proofing technologies?
• Is the industry prepared for these changes in digital fraud?

Download your copy of the report today.

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: MKTX), the operator of a leading electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities, and the provider of market data and post-trade services for the global fixed-income markets, today announced the launch of a centralized fixed income trading marketplace that fully integrates rates trading capabilities within the MarketAxess trading system.

By combining credit and rates trading capabilities into a single workstation, existing MarketAxess investor and dealer clients have greater flexibility in trading across the fixed income universe and gain efficient access to streaming, click-to-trade liquidity for on- and off-the-run U.S. Treasuries. This allows thousands of current credit trading users to seamlessly access the MarketAxess Rates trading solution with full post-trade integration. MarketAxess Rates is now the former LiquidityEdge brand.

Steve Chylinski, Head of Fixed Income Trading with Eagle Asset Management, commented: “Actively managing thousands of separately managed accounts demands access to broad liquidity sources and a streamlined operational workflow. By connecting credit and rates trading capabilities into a single workstation, including combining streaming U.S. Treasury and all-to-all credit market liquidity, we can improve the efficiency of our portfolio management process.”

This launch marks the first phase of development planned for integrating the rates product segment within the MarketAxess platform. Further enhancements will include expanding the trading protocols available to customers by exposing Request-for-Quote (RFQ) inquiries alongside click-to-trade streams, as well as broadening the product scope to include European Government Bonds and inflation protected securities.

Nichola Hunter, Head of Rates with MarketAxess, added: “Since the acquisition of LiquidityEdge one year ago, we have made swift progress in integrating the businesses and delivering valuable trading solutions to our clients. Our rates trading solution is differentiated by high-quality pricing through bespoke order books and streaming liquidity across the Treasury curve. By combining our innovative rates trading technology with industry-leading credit market liquidity, clients and dealers benefit from a dynamic fixed income trading solution.”

Fingerprints Cards (Fingerprints™) is enabling Rocker to launch the first contactless biometric payment card pilot with its customers in Sweden during Q1 2021. Developed by Idemia the card is integrating Fingerprints’ T-Shape® sensor module to deliver more secure, hygienic contactless payments, without compromising the convenience.

Following several successful market pilots around the world and initial commercial launches in Europe this is the first pilot by a Swedish challenger bank.

With consumers keen to use contactless more than ever, biometric payment cards are emerging as the next innovation in payments enabling a truly ‘touch-free’ and smooth payment experience no matter the amount.

For more information about Fingerprints solution for payments, visit the website.

SunTec Business Solutions, the world’s #1 relationship-based pricing and billing software company, has partnered with TCS for a first-of-its-kind deployment in LATAM – to begin the deployment of  its enterprise-wide pricing  solution on a SaaS model for Bancolombia. Bancolombia is the largest bank in Colombia by asset size and with presence across Colombia, as well as Panama, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, the Cayman Islands, Peru, and Guatemala.

SunTec will implement the cloud-ready, pricing solution that is expected to solve Bancolombia’ needs using its flagship Xelerate platform,  along with TCS as a strategic partner to run and manage the application for the bank on a secure AWS public cloud.

Bancolombia chose SunTec after an extensive evaluation for their strategic pricing program. Pricing is a crucial aspect that helps banks enhance customer relationships and improve operational efficiency. The bank was looking to personalize customer experience, enable digital transformation, facilitate self-serve and expand revenue streams through packaging/bundling, which made it imperative to move from a product-centric to an agile, customer-first model. The centralized pricing solution will be deployed in a phased approach to spread out investment and risk, while augmenting their core system.

María Cristina Arrastía Uribe, Business VP at Bancolombia, said: “Pricing is a strategic initiative across the bank. In these disruptive times we were seeking a comprehensive customer-centric pricing solution to retain our rapidly growing customer base. With SunTec’s deep product and industry expertise in helping banks and financial services firms transform their product experience and innovation capabilities, we too look forward to enhancing client trust and loyalty. Further, we will depend on TCS’ contextual knowledge of our banking operations and understanding of the IT landscape that comes from implementing and managing multiple banking applications in LATAM and globally.”

Nanda Kumar K, Founder & CEO at SunTec Business Solutions, said: “We are delighted to commence the deployment of our flagship relationship-based pricing solution for Bancolombia to help the bank in their journey to a customer-centric engagement. We understand that banking and financial services firms are increasingly challenged by rapidly changing customer expectations, increasing competition, regulatory compliance, and cyber security risks. Once our solution is launched, Bancolombia will be able to enhance their customer and product experience by rapidly designing and launching products and bundles, innovative pricing models and reward customers based on their positive financial behavior. Bancolombia will now have a single source of truth for pricing thanks to SunTec’s pricing solution. The bank will further benefit from the cloud first approach as it offers agility, flexibility, and cost efficiency. This is a significant victory for us as it will give a boost to our expansion in the LATAM market.”

Tushar Parikh Banking, Finance & Insurance Head LATAM and Country Head Brazil, said: “In the Business 4.0 world, leveraging the ecosystem is key to unleashing exponential value for customers. TCS with its contextual knowledge and partnership with SunTec will help deploy SunTec´s Xelerate solution for Bancolombia. TCS has continuously worked to deploy state-of-the-art solutions for the banking industry to accelerate the transformation journey for our customers across the region.”

With Xelerate, SunTec’s award-winning platform and collection of solutions, banks can adopt innovative relationship-based pricing models, behavior-based loyalty programs and prevent revenue leakage with accurate pricing and billing. It also enables the building and launching of various monetization models on banking and platform as a service model. With more than 130 customers across 45+ countries, SunTec is a trusted partner to the world’s leading banks and financial services organizations across the world.

With an increasing number of housing association residents seeking digital options for the payment of rent and related housing costs, West of England housing association Curo, has selected PayPoint’s MultiPay platform to deliver an integrated payment solutions to match, if not exceed, customer expectations. 

With MultiPay, customers can select the most convenient payment option for them, whether that is via a dedicated smartphone app or payment website, Direct Debit, over the phone, by cash or card over the counter in a local shop or via a link sent to their phone as an SMS reminder. The partnership with PayPoint also forms part of Curo’s journey to meet global PCI Security Standards Council requirement because MultiPay enables residents to make seamless payments via their selected channel, without compromising on card security. 

Peter Harris, Business Analyst at Curo, commented: “Delivering renowned customer service is a priority for us and offering flexible payment options for our residents is an important part of that, particularly during these challenging times. Paying rent and other housing fees should be quick and simple.”

Crucially, its implementation within Curo’s own platform was rapid, even with bespoke changes made during the process. Continues Peter: “Both our customers and contact team colleagues have found the platform extremely easy to use from the outset, which in turn meant we avoided any rise in arrears that could potentially have happened.

“In addition to the practical benefits of employing MultiPay, its unique reporting dashboard has been a revelation in terms of viewing real-time data and using that intelligence to support our daily management decisions. Not only do we have access to our transactional data, we have ownership of it – something that wasn’t possible with our previous provider.”

MultiPay removes the need for capital investment in multiple in-house payment solutions and can be easily integrated with a business’s CRM partner. Client-branded payment sites and app payments are hosted by PayPoint or embedded into businesses existing systems with APIs. Supporting both digital and cash payments, MultiPay reduces the cost of collections and simplifies reconciliation. In turn, this adds value to the user and customer journey and ensures more payments are made on time.

Danny Vant, Client Services Director at PayPoint, added: “Curo is a forward-thinking housing association that understands the importance of innovation in delivering a consistently positive customer experience as the market and customer expectations change. Working together on a unique suite of solutions, PayPoint is helping Curo to remove the hurdles residents could experience when paying deposits or rent through outdated legacy systems.

“The payments ecosystem is more advanced than ever before, with online payments sent and received in seconds.  In turn, customer expectations are continually evolving, as is the technology available. As such, we are committed to systematically upgrading and developing our solutions in response to user feedback and emerging tech, to ensure they provide our clients and their customers with the smoothest, most convenient payment solutions possible. We look forward to working closely with Curo to develop and embed new solutions in the future.”

The MultiPay features and benefits

• Self-serve options for customers, offering ultimate convenience and reduces unnecessary contact.
• Flexible and simple digital payment options available to suit broad business needs. Part of the existing payments eco-system: solutions can be integrated with CRM partners.
• Payment pages created and hosted by PayPoint or PCI compliant payments taken through Clients’ existing customer facing channels, via API.
• White labelled end-to-end solutions such as app and web payments available.
• Creates a positive user and customer journey – more than just a payment mechanism or gateway.

Eventus Systems, Inc., a leading global provider of multi-asset class trade surveillance and market risk solutions, today won the 2020 FOW International Award for Market Surveillance Solution of the Year. London-based Global Investor Group announced the recognition for the firm’s Validus platform this morning in a virtual awards celebration, marking the second consecutive year Eventus took the honor.

Judged by a panel of industry experts drawn from across the market in a range of disciplines, the FOW International Awards recognize “the very best in innovation, achievement and commitment to the market in the global cleared derivatives industry.”

Luke Jeffs, Managing Editor of Global Investor Group, said: “Eventus’ Validus platform is a cutting-edge market surveillance platform that covers all assets classes and is adaptable to different types of users, from banks to digital asset exchanges. The firm has grown rapidly in the past year, trebling staff and hiring senior managers, and has won or expanded relationships with flagship clients such as R.J. O’Brien and StoneX.”

Eventus CEO Travis Schwab said: “The FOW International Award is a significant honor, and we’re delighted that the judges recognized our Validus platform for excellence once again. We’ve invested significant resources in 2020 to grow our global team and expand our regional presence – with a strong focus on the European and Asia Pacific regions – while constantly enhancing the platform and increasing connectivity to markets across the world.”

The award follows last week’s announcement that Eventus was named to the global RegTech100 list for the third year running. Other awards Eventus earned this year include Best Trade Surveillance Solution for the Dodd-Frank Act at the 2020 RegTech Insight Awards, and Markets Media’s 2020 Markets Choice Award for Best in RegTech – Surveillance and Financial Risk Management.

Created in April 2017, the Global Investor Group incorporates the Global Investor, FOW and ISF brands and offers news, data and in-depth analysis across derivatives, securities finance, custody and fund services and asset management.