In times of economic uncertainty, investors search for a fallback-strategy enabling them to securely diversify their portfolios. Investors’ requirements are demanding as their investments should both withstand tumultuous markets and, at the same time, maintain an adequate return. New York-based Asset Manager Direxion tackles this compromise by issuing a Swiss-army knife index strategy, which utilizes three lowcorrelating asset classes covering utility stocks, U.S. Treasury bonds, and commodities, to achieve an optimal asset allocation depending on market movements. The resulting Direxion Flight to Safety ETF (NYSE: FLYT) demonstrates Solactive’s expertise in Complex Index creation.

To create the Solactive Flight to Safety Index, the German index provider combines the Solactive US Large & Mid Cap Utilities Index, the Solactive US 20+ Year Treasury Bond Index, and the LBMA Gold Price PM in order to forge a defensive multi-asset index designed to weather economic downturns. The strategy takes into account gold’s longstanding tradition of stability or an increase in value during negative market sentiments. Similar behavior has been observed for U.S. listed large-capitalization utility stocks, rendering these shares a matching counterpart for the precious commodity. Additionally, the strategy is backed by U.S. Treasury bonds with remaining maturities of greater than 20 years enjoying the deep trust and full credit of the U.S. government. The low correlation of the components can deliver an added diversification to investors’ portfolios. Another feature of the index is its rebalancing method, which is based on the volatility contribution of each respective index component. The methodology takes into account each component’s trailing 5-year volatility and weights the least volatile component most heavily in the strategy. A capping at a share of 22.50% of the LBMA Gold Price PM prevents an overweight of the commodity. Any excess will be proportionally distributed to the U.S. Large and Mid-Cap Utilities and U.S. treasury bonds allocations. 

“The Solactive Flight to Safety Indexis an appropriate tool for defensive investors seeking to support their portfolio against economic disturbance,” comments Timo Pfeiffer, Chief Markets Officer at Solactive. “This strategy could Fabian Colin Head of Sales +49 (69) 719 160-220 fabian.colin@solactive.com www.solactive.com Phil Wiedbrauck PR & Communications +49 (69) 719 160-311 phil.wiedbrauck@solactive.com Solactive AG German Index Engineering Platz der Einheit 1 60327 Frankfurt am Main Germany Steffen Scheuble CEO +49 (69) 719 160-20 scheuble@solactive.com become especially handy in 2020, as both the macroeconomic outlook is deteriorating and asset prices across all asset classes are already elevated.” Dave Mazza, Managing Director and Head of Product at Direxion comments: “Collaborating with Solactive on this index enables us to deliver a strategy that helps investors gain potential protection while remaining invested in the markets, in a low-cost way that many liquid alternative strategies have struggled to deliver.”

Saxo Markets UK Ltd., the UK subsidiary of Saxo Bank A/S, today announces the appointment of Charlie White-Thomson as new non-executive Chairman of its Board of Directors.

White-Thomson has served as a non-executive director on the Board of Directors of Saxo Markets UK since 2019 and brings more than 20 years of experience in financial services. Having worked in several senior management positions, he has an extensive track-record of navigating changing markets with a focus on scaling business models while continuously focusing on improving the client experience.

Charlie White-Thomson, non-executive Chairman of Saxo Markets UK, commented on his new role:

“I am pleased to be taking on the position as Chairman. It is an interesting time for Saxo as technology, regulation and client demands are changing the industry. Saxo is in a unique position to reap the benefits of these changes. I have been impressed by the depth of the multi-asset offering and the continued investments in technology to ensure the overall client experience is first rate.

“I strongly believe that we have the platforms, technology and people to continue to grow our market share and footprint in the United Kingdom.”

Damian Bunce, Chief Commercial Officer and member of the Board of Management of Saxo Bank, commented:

“We are delighted to announce the appointment of Charlie White-Thomson as Chairman of Saxo Markets UK. On behalf of the Board of Management, we very much look forward to working with Charlie to help take our UK business to the next level and to continue to strengthen our relationship with regulators, clients and partners and further cement our place as a leader in the online investment and trading community.”

Charlie White-Thomson replaces Anthony Belchambers who has served as Chairman since 2015. Damian Bunce, Chief Commercial Officer, thanked Belchambers for his contribution to Saxo:

“On behalf of the Board of Management of Saxo Bank, we would like to thank Anthony sincerely for his service as the Chairman of Saxo Markets UK. Under his guidance our leadership and organisation has been strengthened, and he leaves the firm in a stronger position. We wish him well with future endeavours.”  

London-based institutional custody and prime brokerage firm, Copper.co, today announces its integration with OTC liquidity provider, DV Chain. The integration will allow Copper’s institutional clients instant and secure access to DV Chain’s liquidity through its prime brokerage infrastructure - so they may make trades through the Copper platform.

Copper’s Walled Garden and prime brokerage infrastructure now covers 96% of global crypto liquidity and is seeing over £500 million in transactions each month – with that figure growing steadily.

DV Chain facilitates over-the-counter trading through voice, API & web portal for institutional buyers and sellers of crypto assets. In addition, DV Chain offers a fully integrated market making service for institutional clients and exchanges.

This news follows the announcement that Copper.co has been appointed by trade finance blockchain solution, XinFin, to provide an institutional custody solution.

Dmitry Tokarev, CEO and Founder of Copper.co, has commented: “DV Chain is a fine example of a liquidity provider that truly wishes to provide the best for its institutional clients. Copper is proud to help them in this endeavour.

“Our prime brokerage infrastructure brings the efficacy of traditional trading into the digital asset space, and allows investors and traders to have complete security whilst being able to implement a variety of investment strategies.”

Garrett See, CEO and Co-Founder of DV Chain, has commented: "The team at Copper has built an industry leading platform that enables institutions to transact cryptocurrencies in a secure and seamless manner. DV Chain is proud to be partnering with Copper to allow Copper’s clients to tap into our world class liquidity.

Dot, offline-to-online (O2O) commerce and fintech platform founded by entrepreneur and PayU India’s ex co-founder Shailaz Nag today announced that it has raised an initial seed funding of around US$8 million. PayU, the payments and fintech business of Prosus, and Fosun RZ Capital led the seed funding round, which also saw participation from Info Edge Ventures and other well-known angel investors in the country. Dot is a technology start-up, providing novel digital transformation and commerce solutions to brick & mortar outlets, which serve 1.3 billion Indian customers with market size of US$ 1 trillion [1].

Dot aims to revolutionize the offline-to-online market space by combining its fintech capabilities with extensive customer engagement offerings and smart tech innovations. Dot, with its unique product offerings, is expected to have the first-mover advantage & will be well-positioned to capture the strong growth from the market.

“There is a huge potential in the offline-to-online commerce and fintech sector, offering immense opportunities for the right product. India has the second largest number of internet users in the world and a rapidly increasing smartphone user base. This, coupled with the recent digitisation push both from the government and the private sector is generating tremendous demand for digital transformation solutions by brick and mortar stores. I personally see a significant potential in this space, which has led to the conception of Dot,” said Shailaz Nag, founder, Dot.

Tej Kapoor, co-executive president of Fosun RZ Capital, said, “The Dot team has a deep and intrinsic understanding of the Indian fintech space and a proven history of creating and running successful companies, be it PayU or Ibibo. The current digital experience of offline merchants is broken at many levels and the engagement with customers is non-existent. Dot will change that and consequently create immense value.”

Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Founder and Executive Vice Chairman, Info Edge, said, “We believe that Dot has identified an important untapped market segment. It is founded by a stellar team and has the first-mover advantage, which is a winning combination.”

Dot is Shailaz Nag’s second stint as an entrepreneur after PayU. A doyen of the fintech space, he co-founded PayU India. Under him, India became the largest market for PayU’s global operations, accounting for more than 50% of its business. Shailaz helped PayU grow as the largest online payment solution provider and played a vital role in making it a profitable enterprise.

Dot is led by an experienced team, three ex-PayU employees - Shailaz Nag, Gyanesh Sharma & Anurag Gupta, all having proven expertise and knowledge of the fintech e-commerce space as well as experience in building and managing companies.

Global fintech leader Airwallex today announced the launch of the Airwallex Borderless Card for businesses, in partnership with Visa, the world’s leading digital payment technology company.

Launched at Pause Fest 2020, a leading innovation festival held in Melbourne, the new card will enable Airwallex account holders to pay suppliers in seconds and empower their teams to make corporate purchase decisions. As a result, businesses will be able to save time, cost and the hassle involved in managing these types of transactions.

The Airwallex Borderless Card is debuting in Australia and will become available in other markets around the world, including the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, later this year.

The new strategic partnership with Visa is a significant milestone for Airwallex. The collaboration focuses on innovative multi-currency cross-border payment solutions for businesses, bringing together Airwallex’s market-leading international foreign exchange rates with the security, benefits and convenience of paying with Visa.

The Airwallex Borderless Card will be rolled out in two key phases. From today, Airwallex customers in Australia will be able to instantly generate and issue multi-currency virtual payment cards to pay suppliers in seconds. With the ability to make payments to merchants globally where Visa is accepted, the new card will provide greater efficiencies and improved financial oversight for business operators. Both single use or multi-use cards are available with individual transaction limits across currency and merchant types, providing total control and visibility over payments.

More features will be introduced in the coming months, including the ability to set daily, weekly or monthly spending limits and time usage limits, as well as access to enhanced reporting and reconciliation.

The second phase, due at the end of Q1 2020, will see the Airwallex Borderless Card expand to offer multi-currency corporate cards for business owners and their employees, further empowering them to make every-day corporate purchase decisions. Airwallex customers will be able to generate individual corporate cards instantly, bypassing traditional processes that require extensive paperwork, hefty annual fees and bank queues. The corporate cards will first be available in physical form, with a virtual rollout later in Q2 2020 in digital wallets and via the Airwallex corporate card mobile app.

Airwallex and Visa’s partnership will revolutionise the cross-border payments experience for businesses that need to make payments to multiple parties across different geographies, such as online marketplaces, online travel agents and businesses who work with gig economy workers.

“Airwallex’s goal has always been to set up a global financial infrastructure that helps businesses to grow and scale. In the last few years, we have cemented a growing reputation as one of the world’s leading cross-border payments providers. This partnership with Visa takes us to a new level, where we can now offer businesses an end-to-end financial services solution. We have evolved to become a business account that will support the financial needs of today’s modern business,” said Jack Zhang, CEO and Co-founder of Airwallex.

Chris Clark, regional president, Asia Pacific, Visa, said on the announcement, “Today, cross-border B2B payments remain a cumbersome and costly affair, which can impact small businesses and corporates who are time-starved and need to keep a close eye on their cashflow. This is why we are excited to partner with Airwallex to help businesses make seamless, secure and convenient international payments, all linked to a Visa account. By leveraging our network and scale, businesses on the Airwallex platform can now make payments to any merchant that accepts Visa”.

Airwallex’s partnership with Visa marks the latest stage in the fintech’s growth, following the office openings in Japan and India and its integration with Xero in Q1 2020.

In 2019, Visa’s commercial card solutions generated more than US$1 trillion in payment volume, making Visa the largest card payment network for B2B payments in the world. As fintechs continue to be a key enabler in driving new payment flows and creating new ways to pay and be paid, the Visa and Airwallex partnership speaks to Visa’s commitment in partnering with fintechs to scale their payment innovations around the world, with increased safety and speed.

India FinTech Festival (IFF) 2020, India’s first homegrown global platform to drive Fintech innovation in the country has opened applications for its marquee show ‘FInD the next Unicorn’, giving a chance to Indian consumer fintech startups to spot raise pre Series A up to $1M.

IFF 2020 is being presented by Mumbai Fintech Hub (Government of Maharashtra), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Fintech Convergence Council (FCC) on March 4 and 5 at MMRDA grounds, Bandra Kurla Complex. The event is supported by Department of Financial Services, NITI Aayog, Invest India, Digital India, World Bank and UNCDF (United Nations Capital Development Fund). Medici is the program partner for the IFF 2020.

Similar in concept to the popular American TV series Shark Tank, ‘FInD the next Unicorn’ is a fast-paced, business reality event to showcase India's top ten early-stage FinTech startups looking to raise funding from a panel of five marquee investors.

The eligibility criteria for the application includes:

·         Must be an India-based start-up

·         Should be looking for less than or equal to $1M

·         Must have a consumer-facing product

·         No ideation stage, must have a product

·         Must have some positive revenue generation

A five member jury is to shortlist 20 applicants for a closed door semifinal, slated to be held in mid-February in Mumbai. Of the 20 startups, 10 will be selected to present their idea at the finale to be held at the India Fintech Festival on March 5.

“India has been home to 25 Unicorns and we believe that the zest from the fintech startup ecosystem will help us discover more start-ups that can take the number to 100 by 2025. FInD the next Unicorn is borne out of this zeal to discover such ideas and people and take them to the next level. In addition to the spot funding commitment, FInD the Next Unicorn will also give a massive exposure to these startups by bringing them to the centre stage of the fintech ecosystem and help them get noticed by more investors who are willing to support them,” said Suniti Nanda, Fintech Officer, Mumbai Fintech Hub, Government of Maharashtra.

During the finale each of the 10 shortlisted startups will get 10 minutes to present their ideas to an audience of 1,500 people and spot pitch to a marquee investor panel of 5 members including the likes of Mr. Amrish Rau, India CEO of PayU and Mr. Sanjay Mehta, Founder and Partner of 100x.vc.  An on-the-spot funding commitment of up to $1M will be made by the panel in the startup whose idea is found to be the most convincing.

For more information is available on the FInD the next Unicorn webpage.

With 100+ speakers, 5000+ attendees, 25+ participating countries, India FinTech Festival 2020 is the biggest homegrown fintech event in the country. The event serves as a representation of the best of the innovations of over 2000+ Indian startups working to make India a $5 trillion economy by 2024, due to the critical aspect financial services play in the progress of an economy.

Integral (www.integral.com), the technology partner trusted by leading banks, brokers, and asset managers to help them outperform their competition in the foreign exchange market, reported today average daily volumes (ADV) across Integral platforms totaled $35.5 billion in January 2020. This represents an increase of 2.3% compared to January 2019.

No other platform reaches as many, as varied, and as comprehensive a set of FX products and participants as Integral OCXTM. Banks, brokers, and asset managers now share direct access to OCX and use this unique liquidity to win market share from their competitors.

OCX is directly cross connected with more than 250 liquidity sources supplying more than 3,000 market making streams in NY4, LD4, and TY3. OCX’s award-winning advanced market design delivers the ultimate in execution performance by combining resting limit orders, market-making streams, and midpoint interest in a single integrated high-performance venue.
 
 

 MuchBetter, the award winning iGaming payments company, today announced the launch of MuchBetter cash, a unique cash-to-iGaming-account transaction service. Enabled by the MuchBetter API, MuchBetter cash allows customers to make free cash payments at offline retail locations directly into their iGaming accounts.

MuchBetter already offers customers the ability to top up their wallets with cash at participating points of sale in selected markets. The new solution will now enable cash payments to be instantly made to a designated player account, rather than deposited to the MuchBetter wallet. The MuchBetter cash service is free to customers, and the company hopes it will disrupt the cash payments monopoly that currently exists in iGaming payments.

“Cash-based payments in online gaming has been a monopoly for years”, said MuchBetter co-founder, Jens Bader. “It is a highly regulated area with strict KYC and AML requirements in all jurisdictions, making it hard for anyone to disrupt the status quo until now. MuchBetter Cash is a unique new service for participating iGaming merchants and a simple mechanism for them to collect cash payments with zero technical integration, since this is done directly via their existing MuchBetter API. They just need to opt-in to the new product. For regular players, MuchBetter Cash means direct cash deposits to their gaming accounts, with no additional steps or loading of intermediary accounts or entering voucher codes. Furthermore, customer pay-outs of winnings go back directly into their MuchBetter account and are immediately accessible with the MuchBetter MasterCard. This method will add substantial savings to payment processing costs for iGaming merchants while giving them another cash payment solution. It’s simply MuchBetter.”

The new MuchBetter cash service will initially be available in some selected European countries and available to all Operators accepting the MuchBetter wallet service.

Getting a company off the ground has never been easier. Using the existing “UBS Start Business” platform, UBS and Zurich are launching a comprehensive offering that goes beyond traditional banking and insurance. In addition to the extensive banking package which includes a free capital payment and business account, co-working opportunities, and mentoring programs, we are now offering the kinds of insurance policies that are either mandatory for companies or cover important risks that many start-ups can’t take on themselves.

This innovative offer helps entrepreneurs get excellent banking and insurance solutions efficiently and without the complications. Instead of spending a lot of time on appointments, the online platform streamlines the process and recommends transactions crucial to success of start-ups in the founding stages. Compulsory insurance such as occupational retirement planning and accident insurance are explained in simple terms, and company founders receive an offer with just a few clicks. The tool also intuitively guides through key voluntary coverages such as daily sickness benefits insurance. You can sign up immediately or delve into these offers later on.

Axel Lehmann, President UBS Switzerland, comments: “With the combined offer from Zurich and UBS, we’re pleased to support young entrepreneurs during the crucial stages of start-ups. For the first time, start-ups now have a one-stop shop for quick, easy and coordinated access to key banking and insurance products”.

Juan Beer, CEO of Zurich Switzerland, says: “We’re proud to be working closely with UBS in launching an innovative new product for SMEs. This draws on our experience as a world leader in bancassurance with over 70 partner banks in 17 countries”.

One factor driving considerable, sustainable success in a number of countries around the globe is the cooperation between banks and insurance companies. In Switzerland, the potential is just as great.