Local high school students are getting a free education in how to manage their money. Andigo Credit Union is working with Banzai, a national award-winning financial literacy program, to make curriculum available to seven Cook and DuPage County high schools, completely free.

"Banzai is a web-based financial literacy program. Kids get their own accounts, and they work through assignments that are based on real life," Morgan Vandagriff, co-founder of Banzai, said. "But because Andigo Credit Union is sponsoring it, local schools get it for free. More than ever, it's important that kids develop sound financial skills to prepare them for the real world, and Andigo Credit Union realizes that and they're doing something about it."

At Andigo Credit Union, giving back to the community is a central part of our mission.

Teacher testimonial: “Thank you so much for sponsoring my “Living On Your Own” class. Personal finance is such an important part of preparing students for life after high school. The Banzai program with real-life simulations is a great addition to our curriculum. We really appreciate the sponsorship.”

Student testimonial on what they learned: “That budgeting is the best way to

manage money.”

Andigo also offers classroom presentations, branch tours and interviews with our finance professionals. Our goal is to help support teachers in their efforts to facilitate financial education in the classroom.

“Too often students get out of school and they just aren't ready for the financial roller coasters life can give us,” Vandagriff said. “Banzai teaches students to navigate those twists and turns and come out on top. We're excited to work with Andigo Credit Union to improve financial literacy in their local schools.”

Banzai is an interactive, online program supplemented by printed workbooks that align with state curriculum requirements for personal finance education. The educational program also introduces students to auto loans, bank statements, entertainment costs, savings and more. It has become the largest program of its kind, servicing more than 50,000 teachers and available in all 50 states.

Business information provider IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO) has recruited pricing and risk management specialist, Mark Findlay, as the Global Head of its Financial Risk Analytics business. Based in London, Findlay will report to Chief Technology Officer and Chief Data Scientist, Yaacov Mutnikas, and will lead the business.

With more than 25 years of experience in global markets, consulting and financial risk solutions services, Findlay joins IHS Markit from TLG, a specialist risk management consultancy in London, where he served as a Partner. Previously, Findlay held chief operating officer positions in financial markets trading and quantitative risk management roles at ABN AMRO, UBS, BAML. He was also the capital management programme director of global markets at HSBC.

Commenting on the addition of Findlay to the team, Mutnikas said, “We are thrilled to welcome Mark as the new Global Head of Financial Risk Analytics, where his deep risk management experience for asset managers and banks will help us grow the business further. As a former long-standing customer of our risk analytics and data services, he will be well-positioned to oversee our product innovation plans so that we continue to provide our customers with best-in-class risk analytics solutions.”

Financial Risk Analytics from IHS Markit provides firms with enterprise-wide risk management solutions, including an award-winning FRTB solution and a solution for CCR/xVA.

The Financial Data Exchange (FDX) welcomed 25 new members between August 1 and December 31, 2019, bringing the total membership to 82 organizations that have committed to collectively transitioning to a modern, transparent and secure data sharing approach. Since its launch in October 2018, FDX has more than tripled its membership.

FDX represents an industry-wide movement to enhance consumer and business controls of financial data, through its FDX API and technical standards that prioritize the group’s Five Core Principles of Financial-Data Sharing – Control, Access, Transparency, Traceability and Security.  

The growing membership is also reflected in the rapid adoption of the FDX API, as data sources, such as financial institutions, and data service providers (aggregators) are collectively transitioning to this modern data sharing standard. In October 2019, members reported over 5.26 million U.S. customers on the standard and were expecting to have it rolled out to 8 million customers by late 2019 and approximately 12 million by April 2020.

“Working together as an industry, we provide consumers and businesses with better transparency, security and control over their financial data, while eliminating access barriers for innovators,” said Don Cardinal, Managing Director of the Financial Data Exchange. “Recently-signed data sharing agreements by our member firms are verifiable steps towards a credential sharing-free future all members are working toward.”

The newest members to commit to the FDX API and secure data-sharing standard are (in alphabetical order): Ally, Apiture, BillGO, Cloudentity, CloudVector, Codat, Connexussecure, DAPI, Discover, EarnIn, Forge Rock, Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), Innovecture, MassMutual, Mazooma, M Science, MyFinApps, Ping Identity, TransUnion®, TrueLayer, Validifi, VantageScore Solutions LLC, Verify My Banks.

Old Mission Holdings (“Old Mission”), a global, multi-asset class market-making firm, today announced that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) has approved a brokerage license modification for its Old Mission Markets subsidiary. The change will enable Old Mission Markets to begin offering trading services directly to buy-side institutions and ETF issuers later this year, complementing the firm’s existing market-making business conducted through the Old Mission Capital broker-dealer.

Old Mission has steadily grown since its founding in 2008, providing trillions of dollars in on-screen liquidity since the firm’s inception, across virtually every exchange-listed asset class globally. Leveraging its advanced technology infrastructure and quantitative techniques, Old Mission has built a reputation for being willing to take short and long positions in many of the hardest-to-price and most illiquid ETFs.

Two industry veterans have been hired to drive the growth of the new institutional services business. Bryan Christian, formerly Head of US Sales at Cboe Global Markets, has joined the firm as Managing Director, Head of Business Development and Strategy. Harry Whitton, who mostly recently worked in ETF Sales Trading at Virtu and before that held senior sales positions at other leading firms in the ETF industry, has joined as Senior Vice President, Head of ETF Sales and Trading.

“The seismic changes underway in the industry – in particular the rotation of assets from mutual funds to ETFs, the continued tightening of spreads and the increasing focus on execution quality – all play directly into our core strengths,” said Old Mission co-founder and CEO Joe Guzowski. “The launch of an institutional client-facing business later this year is a natural evolution of our firm, and we could not be happier to have two industry professionals as well-respected as Bryan and Harry lead it.”

“Most of the industry’s largest institutions and ETF issuers have benefited over the last decade from the high-quality liquidity Old Mission provides, often in their hardest-to-trade names,” said Christian. “We look forward to Old Mission now being able to work directly with these clients by offering unmatched prices and service levels, ultimately helping them succeed in the increasingly competitive ETF space.”

Form3, the leading cloud-native, payment technology provider have announced that they will provide direct access to the SEPA Instant payment scheme for Ebury. This will be the first solution in Europe that allows direct scheme access for non-banks like FinTech’s and regulated financial institutions, while using Barclays as their liquidity provider.

For non-banks this industry first model signifies an important step in the democratisation of the payments landscape. The model allows them to fully benefit from the advantage of real-time payment processing (such as 24/7 non-stop service and end-to-end processing in under 10 seconds) and to optimally leverage these capabilities towards their customers.

Normally scheme participation would only be reserved for banks or credit institutions, leaving non-banks with an indirect participation option only. Form3 offers Ebury the Directly Connected Non-Settling Participant sponsorship model (DCNSP). As a service provider for both UK Faster Payments and SEPA Instant (EBA/RT1), Form3 has integrated their real-time payment processing platform with both schemes and can thus facilitate technical connectivity to the central scheme infrastructures. Barclays offers settlement and liquidity provision services and this helps Ebury to scale even further.

Michael Mueller, Chief Executive Officer at Form3 said, “Form3 is committed to making payments faster, easier and more cost effective for the global financial community. This includes non-banks. Utilising our long standing, close partnership with Barclays means, together we can open up access to payment schemes for both the Fintech community and financial institutions more broadly, the value of which can be passed on directly to their customers.”

Toby Young, CTO at Ebury commented, “This new way of directly connecting to SEPA Instant without the need for a central bank account brings real-time payment capabilities within the scope of many smaller banks and other payment providers. It’s encouraging to see the imaginative and flexible technical solution that Form3 has developed and brought to the market.”

MDOTM, the fintech startup that uses artificial intelligence to develop investment strategies to support banks, wealth and asset managers, keeps on growing, expanding its team with Axel Maier who joins as Global Business Development Strategist.

Maier, who will be based in London, has 24 years of experience in the asset management industry. He worked with very different organizations such as Macquarie Investment Management as Head of Asian Business in Hong Kong and Wellington Management in London and Singapore covering Asia, Europe and the Middle East. He held board positions for regulated business in Germany, Korea, Japan and Hong Kong and his experience includes setting up, developing and executing business development and team build-out strategies in Asia and Europe as well as acquisitions of asset management companies.

His knowledge of the asset management industry will be key in speeding up the international expansion of the Fintech company, which - after the 2018 series A funding - managed a rapid expansion in Europe thanks to its cutting-edge investment solutions that use AI to adapt to the financial markets’ complexity and to the customization needs of institutional clients.

On this topic, Axel Maier says: “MDOTM brings a new perspective and drive to the asset management market. It makes AI understandable and makes the usual “black box” transparent for its clients. The creative energy and dedication of the team is captivating and I look forward to helping channeling this to the benefits of our clients.”

Tommaso Migliore, CEO and Co-Founder of MDOTM declared: “I’m really glad that such an experienced professional joined us, fully embracing our values and our mission of supporting institutional investors with our AI solutions. 2020 will be crucial for our growth. Axel’s experience and know-how will be pivotal to strengthen our presence in Europe and to further support the international scale-up”.