Surecomp®, the leading provider of global trade finance solutions for banks and corporates, today announced the appointment of Enno-Burghard Weitzel as its Senior Vice-President of Strategy and Business Development to drive future growth and harness the accelerated demand for trade finance digitization.

Mr Weitzel is a seasoned expert in the field of cash and trade in which he previously held senior positions at one of Europe’s pioneering trade finance banks. He has also spent five years at a leading management consultancy firm. Mr Weitzel will be joining Surecomp in March 2021 to help drive the company’s strategic direction and ensure product development is completely aligned with customer needs and the rapidly increasing appetite for trade finance digitization across the globe.

The pandemic has proved to be a critical turning point in the adoption of trade finance digitization, with a much broader spectrum of banks and corporates now recognizing that manual, spreadsheet or paper-based processes are no longer fit for purpose. Mr Weitzel’s command of the trade finance industry will be key to understanding future development needs while identifying new market opportunities, enabling Surecomp customers to continue setting the new global standard in trade finance operations.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to be joining Surecomp,” said Enno-Burghard Weitzel. “It’s a great company with a strong value proposition, reputation and outstanding client franchise. We will be working together - in collaboration with the banks and corporates - to continue offering the market the next generation trade finance platform, putting customers firmly at the center of an ecosystem that is open to any technology able to facilitate global trade. There is no better company to help drive the future of trade finance.”

“Enno’s appointment comes at a time of great excitement and growth for us,” explains Surecomp President Guy Perry. “His experience and insight will be invaluable as our customers continue to transform and we bring them into the digital trade finance age. I’m delighted he’s joining Surecomp and look forward to working with him.”

TIBCO Software Inc., a global leader in enterprise data, empowers its customers to connect, unify, and confidently predict business outcomes, solving the world’s most complex data-driven challenges. Today, TIBCO announced that its global TIBCO4Good™ initiative continues to leave a lasting impact through work with key partners and customers. Together with Microsoft, TIBCO hosted a Missing Maps event to help map uncharted areas of the world, enabling key humanitarian organisations to reach those in need. TIBCO also began work on a programmes called “Back on Your Feet” with Singapore Management University (SMU) and She Loves Data to educate individuals affected by the global pandemic. SMU is a premier university in Asia, internationally recognised for its research and distinguished teaching, and She Loves Data organises events that help women build skills, enabling them to transition to data-related careers.

“This year has been particularly tough as many people found themselves unable to support their families, which in turn impacts our communities," said Dan Streetman, chief executive officer, TIBCO. "These initiatives highlight the importance of using technology for good, and as a tool to empower people to adapt their skill sets for our digital age. With TIBCO4Good, we aim to give back, focusing on sustainable innovations that uplift, inspire, and facilitate the positive change we need in the world."

Missing Maps

For the second year running, TIBCO partnered with Microsoft in the U.S. to assist in the online mapping of vulnerable areas through the Missing Maps initiative. At a recent philanthropic event, the teams collectively completed over 5,930 map edits of Indonesia with 168 volunteer hours logged. Indonesia is a country with infrastructure that is frequently impacted by natural disasters. Founded by the Red Cross, Missing Maps is an open collaboration project with a goal of filling in data gaps for places literally missing from the map. The work completed by TIBCO and Microsoft provides humanitarian organisations with the information needed to better facilitate disaster response, medical activities, and resource allocation when crises occur.

“Having the right map data allows NGOs to preemptively respond to a potential disaster and lessen the impact on vulnerable communities,” said Eve Stacey, vice president, partner business development, One Commercial Partner, Microsoft Corp. “With the added data we mapped with TIBCO, humanitarian organisations in Indonesia can better forecast the impact of future disasters and implement early response actions, reducing potential risks faced by the people in these areas. We are delighted to contribute time and resources to such a monumental project, especially as this data enables communities to become more resilient and ultimately better prepared.”

Back on Your Feet

“Back on Your Feet” is a global programme run by TIBCO, SMU, and She Loves Data. As part of its first phase, She Loves Data offers a series of workshops and training modules, with course content developed by SMU’s School of Information Systems, to individuals who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. The workshops provide participants with the skills and techniques to design, develop, and deploy analytic dashboards. Working with the university, students, and community, individuals who complete the workshops are certified as dashboard and forecasting specialists, and receive a free Spotfire license for a year. The programme begins in APJ throughout November and December 2020, extending to the U.S. in early 2021, followed by EMEA.

“The pandemic hit many people globally, creating redundancy in countless jobs. Working with TIBCO and Singapore Management University, we strive to help individuals who are now unemployed as a result of COVID-19,” said Nina Conseil, manager global certification programs, She Loves Data. “Our programme, Back on Your Feet, provides participants with new skills and techniques, enhancing their core competencies to ensure their capabilities are relevant to today’s market."

Learn more about TIBCO4Good and its initiatives at www.tibco.com/tibco4good.

Swarm Technology today announces the launch of its unique managed futures trading platform, Swarm XVI.  

Using artificial intelligence (AI), Swarm XVI applies a form of biomimicry to trade a portfolio of 16 liquid futures markets in a way that extracts information more efficiently than many existing methods. 

The program has been developed to emulate and deploy the naturally occurring phenomenon of ‘swarm intelligence’; where the collective behaviour of a colony of simple ‘agents’ outperforms the sum of the individuals. 

Swarm has gone some way to verifying its 15 year back-test with a 17-month live trading period. The initial funds came from the Shirlock family office. During this time, Swarm XVI has: 

·       Demonstrated a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 23.5%*, with an annualised volatility of 18.6%* in back-test and live trading 

·       Shown low correlation to the S&P500; 0.10 

·       Outperformed the Soc Gen CTA Index; 23.5%* vs 2.27%** (CAGR since 01/2005) 

·       Year-to-date, Swarm XVI is +14.2%* versus -1.6%** reported for the Soc Gen CTA Index. 

Accounts managed by Swarm are available with immediate effect to professional investors and eligible counterparties through Privium. Through its partnership with Privium, Swarm is fully authorised to offer fully regulated managed accounts.

Swarm Technology is led by CEO Pan Yiannakou, COO Charles Drew and CCO Ian Russell, who bring more than seven decades of combined experience in systems, trading, risk management, legal and financial disciplines.

Pan Yiannakou, CEO of Swarm, said: “While AI trading has earned a reputation for being complex and inaccessible, the concept of Swarm XVI is simple. Our technology harnesses the natural power of swarm intelligence to aim to make better, more efficient investment decisions. We have seen highly promising results from our blind back-test which is supported by the live track record.” 

“For years, even decades, AI has been deployed on trading floors for high-frequency trading and to make split second decisions. Swarm takes a different approach. Our efficient and low-cost strategy means we only sample data and trade once a day. The system targets medium-length positions with a mix of strategies.” 

Clayton Heijman, Managing Director of Privium, said: “Privium has always been committed to supporting and catalysing the growth of ambitious trading strategies. Swarm Technology is no exception: we have been consistently impressed by the effectiveness of the program and its performance over a long-time horizon. It is rare to see a strategy that has been through such different and thorough market conditions and which hasachievedimpressive returns. We look forward to seeing the impact that the team at Swarm will bring to investors.” 

Ralph Kanter, from the Shirlock family office, said: “We have been very satisfied with the returns over the past 17 months. We have geared the Swarm XVI program and despite a difficult period for markets globally, I have seen a 43% gross return on my investment. The Swarm team have developed a remarkable product.”

*pre-fees

**estimate 

Provenir, a leader in risk decisioning and data analytics software, today announced a new partnership with Istanbul-based consultancy firm, Gini Finance, to support further market expansion in Turkey.

The partnership will empower Turkish banks, fintechs and financial services organizations to incorporate industry-leading decisioning software in a bid to propel their move to digitize customer onboarding and enhance their credit risk processes.

Chris Kneen, Senior Vice President EMEA at Provenir, said: “Turkey is a dynamic and connected market, with a vibrant and well-resourced fintech landscape that is driving the digitalization of products and addressing the obstacle of financial inclusion. The banks are collaborating more and more with fintechs and our advanced technology can play a huge role in supporting them on their digital transformation journey.”

“Partnering with Gini Finance is a big step in being able to widen our support to the sector and make data, rich insight and real-time risk decisioning more accessible to the emerging ecosystem. Gini Finance have a strong track record in Turkey, unrivalled experience in the banking space, and we are delighted to announce this exciting partnership.”    

Mehmet Bozacioglu, Managing Director at Gini Finance, said: “After over a decade of implementing decision support systems to almost every financial services organization in Turkey, we know that data preparation and risk model deployment is tremendously important to these businesses. Provenir, a global vendor for decision support systems, brings to the Turkish market one of the most innovative tools in this space, that will empower banks to give better credit decisions. Its powerful platform delivers fast data integration and can operationalize machine learning models. We, with a local technical team, have already completed successful implementations with a leading bank in Turkey and are looking forward to connecting with more organizations in the future through this exciting partnership.”

Eventus Systems, Inc., a leading global provider of multi-asset class trade surveillance and market risk solutions, announced that specialist research firm RegTech Analyst today named the company to its global 2021 RegTech100 List. The honor marks the third consecutive year Eventus earned a place on the selective list of the world’s most innovative solution providers that address the challenges of regulatory pressures within financial services.

Eventus is one of 29 U.S. regulatory technology (RegTech) companies to secure a spot on the list and among less than two dozen firms selected for three years running. The list this year highlights companies from 23 countries that are transforming compliance, risk management and cybersecurity. A panel of analysts and industry experts selected the winners from research produced by RegTech Analyst on more than 1,000 companies.

According to RegTech Analyst, the industry has experienced huge growth in the last few years as banks and financial institutions grapple with the unrelenting pace of regulatory change across all jurisdictions. So far in 2020, more than $5 billion has been invested in RegTech companies as compliance challenges have only been exacerbated by the shift to remote work during COVID-19.

Eventus CEO Travis Schwab said: “We’re truly honored to receive this global recognition once again and appreciate RegTech Analyst’s extensive efforts to identify the most innovative and impactful RegTech firms. We have made significant strides since last year in growing our clients internationally and helping them meet the disparate regulatory and compliance challenges they face. Our Validus platform has gained traction this year across multiple asset classes, including the rapidly growing digital asset space. The scalability and flexibility of our platform have ensured that, even during the pandemic, our clients’ trade surveillance and market risk monitoring capabilities are as robust as ever in remote environments.”

RegTech Analyst Director of Research Mariyan Dimitrov said: “This year’s process to identify the 100 RegTech innovation leaders which are projected to have a lasting impact on the industry was more competitive than ever. Eventus Systems’ innovative approach to trade surveillance and focus on helping firms achieve efficiencies while solving regulatory challenges across global jurisdictions has once again earned the company a spot on our prestigious list.”

A full list of the RegTech100 can be found at www.RegTech100.com. A report with profiles of the companies is available to download for free on the website.

Cappitech, a leading provider of regulatory reporting, best execution analysis and business intelligence solutions for the financial services industry, has appointed Fabrice Bensimon as Sales Manager for Switzerland, France, Luxembourg and Belgium.

Cappitech has seen its customer base double over the last 12 months and this newly created role will allow it to provide a direct and tailored service to firms in these countries. As a tech-led company, Cappitech is well positioned for further accelerated growth as its robust technology is highly scalable and can easily adapt for increased client numbers.

Fabrice joins Cappitech from ICE where he spent eight years as Regional Sales Manager for Switzerland and Lichtenstein, originally at Super Derivatives prior to its purchase by ICE. Previously he was at Euronext as a Key Account Manager and IPO Financial Analyst.

Commenting on the hire, Ronen Kertis, CEO and Founder at Cappitech, said: “The growth of our sales and client-focused team is a source of pride as we continue to work with new clients around the globe. Over 2020, the larger team was able to successfully sign and onboard a higher number of new customers than ever before, with no delays due to COVID-19 or the unexpected closure of CME’s business. Fabrice’s experience across French-speaking Europe will ensure we continue to maintain and further improve this level of service as our business continues to grow.”

“I am delighted to have the opportunity to join Cappitech, a fast-growing, well respected leader in the Industry. I look forward to helping the French speaking market easily access Cappitech’s award-winning transaction reporting solutions and provide them with a unified platform for all reporting regimes,” says Fabrice Bensimon.

Global fintech leader Avaloq has launched the Avaloq Data Synthesizer, a cutting-edge solution that allows financial institutions to simulate real client data in the development of software products. The innovative application can be deployed in the Avaloq.one ecosystem’s sandbox, ensuring a controlled and cloud-based setting.

The new solution derives information from real data, but it is free of any client-identifying data. The result is a production-like, authentic environment that looks and behaves the same as the original database but with a superior quality when compared to alternatives such as anonymization or artificial databases. Synthesized data, which can be accessed internally or externally without any compliance constraints by institutions and third parties, accelerates innovation, speeds up internal proofs of concept, and leads to far greater security and accuracy levels.

The Avaloq Data Synthesizer has been launched as a result of demand from Avaloq’s wealth management and private banking clients for a simple, efficient and compliant means to use production-like data when developing and testing services. The launch comes at a time when the digitalization of the financial services sector is accelerating the shift to cloud-based infrastructures such as software as a service (SaaS) and business process as a service (BPaaS).

Financial institutions can use synthesized data to enhance their software development and testing, reduce compliance and reputational damage from possible data leaks, and benefit from cost savings. Allowing third-party developers, fintechs and partners as well as staff working remotely in cross-border jurisdictions to use synthesized data in a secure and compliant way also delivers significantly greater levels of flexibility.

The Avaloq Data Synthesizer is an Avaloq Core add-on module that can be licensed to the company’s banking and wealth management clients. The application can be deployed in the Avaloq.one ecosystem’s sandbox where clients can test using synthesized data. The sandbox enables institutions to easily create and deploy solutions in a controlled and cloud-based setting. Once onboarded, banks and wealth managers can swiftly develop new solutions. Avaloq.one’s REST API technology enables seamless integration into the Avaloq Banking Suite and provides comprehensive test functions for users.

A number of Avaloq’s clients have been using the solution prior to its formal launch, while Avaloq itself has been running automated test suites on synthesized images since 2019. One of the company’s Swiss-based clients, Luzerner Kantonalbank (LUKB), has been using synthesized data, through the Avaloq.one sandbox, to grant external partners and an independent developer access to their APIs to develop and test a specific banking application.

Stefan Lüthy, Head Digitalization and Multichannel Management, at LUKB, said: “We have been successfully testing products and services with the Data Synthesizer through the Avaloq.one sandbox. This solution has enabled LUKB to run tests very quickly and efficiently. Importantly, using synthesized data has allowed us and our partner companies – all working remotely – to test in a much more realistic way, resulting in better, more practical and actionable outputs.”

Thomas Beck, Chief Technology Officer at Avaloq, said: “A synthesized database speeds up the development process, prevents system failures and offers the freedom to involve partners at will – an increasingly necessary capability in an open banking ecosystem. Developing similar solutions in-house is highly complex and very often too expensive for financial institutions. This latest launch, which has been extensively tested and is already in use, is a direct result of a strong demand for a cost-effective, straightforward solution. It truly illustrates the deep innovation inherent in Avaloq and our ability to meet the changing needs of our clients.”