NatWest has today launched a new partnership with Soldo, a pre-paid company card provider for small businesses, which will allow two of the bank’s ventures, Esme Loans and Rapid Cash, to be offered directly to Soldo’s customers, as the bank aims to increase lending to UK SMEs throughout 2020.

Soldo is a multi-user business expenses solution including Mastercard prepaid cards, a mobile user app and web console. Suitable for businesses of all sizes, it automates expense reporting while giving businesses complete control over how and where employees and departments can spend company money.

Through the new partnership, Soldo users will be able to apply for swift business loans of up to £250,000 via Esme Loans; or choose to borrow up to £500,000 as a flexible line of credit against unpaid invoices via Rapid Cash. Both services will be available directly from within its desktop app, offering quick and simple access to business lending. The partnership follows Rapid Cash’s integration with cloud-based accountancy software provider Xero in November, and is the latest fintech that Esme Loans has joined forces with over the past 12 months.

The partnership supports NatWest’s aim to support growth of UK SMEs with business lending in 2020, following confirmation last November that the lender had extended its growth fund to support small businesses to £8.2billion to help businesses grow, fund green initiatives and navigate the current uncertain business climate.

Andy Ellis, Head of NatWest Ventures said: “As one of the UK’s biggest banks for SMEs, we’re extremely keen to work with anyone that offers a unique, simple experience that makes it easier for our customers to run and grow their business. Soldo is a partner who do exactly that, whilst sharing our passion to do things differently for UK SMEs. We’re thrilled to be working with them.”

The announcement marks the latest in a string of recent partnerships the bank has struck with tech providers to broaden and improve its digital offering. Last year, Microsoft, Amazon and IBM were among the businesses which the lender teamed up with as it continues to invest in technology to support its 17million personal and business customers across the UK.

Built for the investment and acquisition markets, mnAI, a new AI-powered company intelligence platform, has launched in the UK today. mnAI reduces the time it takes companies and individuals to identify and understand relevant businesses from months to minutes.

With over 250 search parameters, mnAI subscribers can avoid hundreds of hours of manual research and benefit from the proprietary technology to anticipate financial growth, discover true peer analysis and find online reputational, financial and combined credit scores. mnAI also enables map-based location searches as well as sector and industry competitor research and analysis.

Harnessing over 55 million financial records of UK companies from the last 10-year period, mnAI uses a combination of Bayesian mathematics and Random Forest Modelling to power predictive algorithms that allow users to determine future-based EBITDA and DCF valuations.

Standard Industry Classification (SIC) codes are no longer fit for purpose. mnAI’s natural language keyword search engine removes the SIC code guess work by enabling users to search for exact keywords or phrases associated with the sector they’re looking into easily and efficiently.

The platform autonomously tracks 37.1 million Director, Shareholder, Officer and PSC profiles in real time – creating rich insight with visual mapped connections. These visual charts also track balance sheets, profit and loss, creditors, debtors, debt, shareholders, connections, contacts and introductions.

mnAI also has free-draw mapping technology which enables users to create bespoke geographical searches based on specific locations rather than postcode or town. With the ability to run multiple areas as standard, searching for future targets has never been easier.

On the launch of mnAI, John Cushing, CEO and Founder said, “From first-hand experience, I know how painful and time consuming it can be to identify companies for investment and acquisition. With mnAI we have created a technology platform that empowers decision making. We’ve ripped up the rule book, streamlining the entire process for identifying and understanding a target business from months to minutes.”

Planixs, the leading provider of real time, intraday cash, collateral and liquidity management solutions, has today announced that it has appointed Nick Applebee to their Customer Leadership Team and to grow Collateral capabilities.

Nick brings with him over 25 years’ experience in the financial services sector having held senior roles at Barclays PLC and Nomura International PLC across product, cash and intraday liquidity management and collateral management. 

Prior to joining Planixs, Nick held the positions of Head of EMEA Inventory Management and EMEA Head of Cash and Intraday Liquidity Management at Nomura International PLC. In these roles, Nick was responsible for managing the full trade lifecycle, optimising collateral and intraday credit usage, managing the funding of the firm’s Depots and Nostro accounts (cash and securities) in real time and working with Treasury to ensure intraday buffers were sufficient and appropriate monitoring was in place.

In addition, whilst at Nomura, Nick was a key individual in the development and implementation of the firm’s intraday liquidity reporting dashboard and payment control function.

Before this, Nick spent seven years at Barclays PLC, undertaking the roles of EMEA Head of Intraday Liquidity Management and FI Product Management (Treasury Solutions). As Head of Intraday Liquidity Management, Nick was accountable for calculating real-time liquidity positions to manage the firm’s cash position at central banks, whilst managing minimum reserve requirements and monitoring liquidity requirements. Nick was an early adopter of the Planixs Realiti solution suite at Barclays where Nick was a customer.

Nick’s role at Planixs will see him use his vast experience and knowledge to work with Planixs’ Sales, Customer and Product teams to help lead customer implementations and build out their Collateral proposition. Having spent most of his career in the banking and liquidity space, Nick is well-versed in the needs of Planixs’ target customers and how to deliver success across all functions including Collateral. Nick’s role will also see him provide support to Planixs’ Sales and Pre-Sales teams to further understand client and prospect collateral requirements.

Planixs has experienced significant growth over the last 12-18 months, from securing an initial £3.5 million strategic investment from private equity firm BGF to adding to its product portfolio with Realiti Essentials (the company’s out-of-the-box treasury software for smaller banking firms) and to adding new customers in the UK, Europe, North America, whilst covering the operations of several large banking firms in the Asia/Pacific region. Collateral management is just one of Planixs’ growth areas for 2020 and having Nick on board will help the company meet its objectives.

Neville Roberts, Planixs’ CEO, comments: “Collateral is a major focus for Planixs in 2020. We have already seen great success with our existing cash and liquidity management and optimisation capabilities and having Nick on board will allow us to accelerate the ongoing development of our Collateral module and engage early customer adopters. Nick will also be a great addition to the Planixs Customer Leadership Team, helping customers implement and gain value from our market leading solution suite.  We look forward to Nick joining and working with him at this exciting time.”

Nick Applebee comments: “I am really excited to join Planixs and contribute towards the growth of its Collateral capability and join the Customer Leadership Team.  Planixs has the leading capability in the cash, collateral and liquidity management space today and I am thrilled to be joining such a talented team.”

Nickel Digital Asset Management is announcing today the launch their second cryptocurrency offering, Nickel Digital Gold Institutional fund to allow for secure, efficient, and transparent access to Bitcoin, the leading digital asset.

The investment team at UK-regulated manager Nickel brings multi-year experience from traditional finance to leverage opportunities in cryptocurrency.

The fund will be supported by a bespoke Walled Garden solution developed by digital assets prime brokerage, Copper. The innovative infrastructure allows digital assets to be moved safely between and stored on several spot and derivative exchanges, providing best execution while minimising counterparty risks and enabling secure asset transfers.

Digital assets will also be secured using long term cold storage provided by Fidelity Digital Assets, with Nickel becoming Fidelity’s first European partner fund in the digital assets space.  

Copper’s Walled Garden infrastructure is the foundation of its Prime Brokerage solution. It connects directly to exchanges using APIs and is designed to give customers additional security for digital asset trading. Fund managers cannot move funds externally without air-gapped multi-signature cross-organisation approval and other security measures. Copper is currently connected to over 96% of global crypto liquidity and is regularly integrating additional exchanges allowing its customers to participate in multiple trading venues.

This is already seen as best practice in international finance, and Copper’s infrastructure is already facilitating around £500 million worth of digital asset trades per month, with volumes steadily expanding.

Michael Hall, CIO of Nickel Asset Management, commented: “We have been using Copper’s Walled Garden for over a year. For active traders like us, it is a critical tool for managing assets and transfers securely and efficiently across multiple trading venues, while ensuring safety of investors’ capital. We look forward to managing the BTC in Digital Gold fund using Copper infrastructure in 2020 and beyond.”

Dmitry Tokarev, Founder and CEO of Copper, commented: “We’re thrilled to see Nickel go from strength to strength in the digital asset space. They have been key partners in developing Copper’s Walled Garden, and we’re very proud to see it implemented for their second fund.”

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. [NYSE:BR], a global Fintech leader and part of the S&P 500® Index, and IBM Services [NYSE:IBM], today announced an agreement to bring new cloud-based solutions to Broadridge’s clients in the financial services industry. As part of this strategic collaboration, Broadridge will create The Broadridge Private Cloud^TM powered by IBM and will transition a significant portion of its global infrastructure to IBM. This key milestone in its cloud strategy will enable Broadridge to better provide powerful industry solutions to leading financial institutions around the world, with improved speed to market, flexibility, and resiliency.

Accelerating its shift to a hybrid cloud model will enable Broadridge to further deliver next-generation SaaS solutions to its clients through industry leading technology infrastructure. Today’s announcement marks Broadridge’s move of its mission-critical workloads to the cloud with IBM, to help further transform the financial services industry. Leveraging IBM’s open source capabilities allows infrastructure flexibility and will provide Broadridge new opportunities to invest in its application portfolio, adding new capabilities to its market-leading solutions. By implementing Red Hat OpenShift platform, the industry's most comprehensive Kubernetes platform, Broadridge will also be able to manage workloads across its overall hybrid cloud infrastructure.

“The Broadridge Private Cloud powered by IBM, will increase our ability to more rapidly deliver next-gen and mission-critical solutions to our clients around the world,” said Mark Schlesinger, Broadridge’s Chief Information Officer. “Accelerating our cloud strategy will enable clients to leverage an industry-leading, highly flexible and resilient technology platform and allow Broadridge to accelerate our product roadmap, providing our clients with faster access to new industry solutions incorporating the ABCDs of Innovation^TM (AI, Blockchain, Cloud, Digital),” Mr. Schlesinger added.

“We look forward to bringing the power of IBM’s hybrid cloud capabilities and financial services industry experience to Broadridge’s mission-critical infrastructure that powers the global financial markets,” said Rodrigo Kede Lima, General Manager, IBM Global Technology Services. “The Broadridge Private Cloud, along with the world’s first financial services-ready public cloud, recently launched by IBM, showcases how IBM is working with key clients all over the world to address critical requirements of financial services institutions with regulatory compliance, security and resiliency.”

The financial services industry continues to face challenges from new and existing competitors, generating the constant need for new, innovative products and services. Additionally, increased regulatory and compliance requirements are driving the need for improved security and resiliency. By engaging with IBM, Broadridge and its clients have a service provider with experience in providing hybrid cloud managed services with a keen awareness of the regulatory and compliance demands of the financial services industry globally.    

IBM is bringing its deep financial services industry experience to help generate long term value to Broadridge and its clients. Over this multi-year agreement, IBM will help modernize Broadridge’s infrastructure to provide automated private cloud services for its critical workloads. In addition, IBM cloud will provide new application development capabilities for Broadridge’s businesses. As Broadridge continues to develop and deploy new applications in the cloud, IBM will also assist with design and migration services along with its ongoing support.

IBM and Broadridge Financial signed this transaction in IBM's fourth quarter of 2019.           

Vend, the preferred retail point-of-sale software of the British Independent Retail Association, has today announced a partnership with global payments provider Klarna. The collaboration gives customers of boutique retailers more flexible payment options, levelling the playing field for small business to compete with enterprise retail and offer Klarna’s smooth and easy payments in-store across the United Kingdom. The role out will later follow in the United States in 2020.

Hailed as the cornerstone of the high street, independent retail is celebrated for ‘retailtainment’ and experiential concepts that continue to draw shoppers to stores. While workshops, local events and initiatives attract loyal customers, innovative use of retail technology is key to support the success and profitability of these small businesses. The use of new, innovative tech frees up time for staff to focus on their unique, winning formulas that ensure local high streets can thrive. 

Vend’s collaboration with Klarna puts an enterprise tool in the hands of small business retailers, so that beloved curated ‘hard to find’ items stocked by independent retailers can now be sold using buy-now-pay-later flexibility in-store on Vend ePOS, and online. 

Small businesses can create a flexible checkout experience that’s easy to set up. Connecting to any smartphone, customers will be able to pay with Klarna by scanning a QR code or using a payment link provided by SMS or email, before filling out their details and selecting a payment option. Klarna then makes a real-time decision made in just seconds and Vend’s ePOS system will automatically reconcile Klarna sales at the end of the day. 

Jake Jarvis, co-founder of Shoreditch-based sunglasses and apparel retailer, Hot Futures, said: “Klarna is a great additional offering for our customers. Breaking down the payment of slightly larger investments over three payments is an attractive proposition and something our customers appreciate us being able to do. It means our customers can make decisions based on their personal cashflow.

“Having Klarna on Vend in-store gives our work flexibility and creates a better customer experience. We’re always looking to make the customer experience better and as flexible as possible. Vend and Klarna help us do just that.” 

Vend chose to partner with Klarna due to the payment provider’s considerable global reach and their impressive roster of brands and retailers - including ASOS, Made.com, Boohoo, and Samsung. Klarna has recently expanded it’s in-store capabilities with the flagship launch of schuh in December 2019. The collaboration with Vend will ensure boutique retailers receive payments upfront, while customers can pay later in three equal instalments. 

Higor Torchia, Managing Director, EMEA at Vend comments: “Consumers love to buy at independent retail shops, and the ability to pay flexibly with Klarna gives shoppers more opportunity to do this, and retailers the ability to attract more customers. 

“Vend’s cloud-based software allows independent retailers to manage their inventory on-the-go, running reporting analytics for users that gives insight on customer loyalty and what’s selling well. Getting Klarna set up on Vend is very simple and can be done in two simple steps. It will ensure retailers can keep track of what’s been sold should customers wish to buy in the moment, but pay when more convenient.”

Luke Griffiths, UK General Manager at Klarna said: 

“One of the most exciting things about working in this space is the opportunity to partner with other fintech and payments services who are also seeking to revolutionise the shopping experience. Our partnership with Vend shows our commitment to supporting small businesses. Combining our flexible payments with Vend’s ePoS system offers a superior shopping experience  for customers and retailers alike. 

As we grow as a business and redefine the way people pay, we’re excited to continue these partnerships and bring flexible payments to more shoppers and retailers globally.”

*Klarna and Vend will be launching their partnership at this year’s TopDrawer event, 12-14th January, in Kensington Olympia ( stand L65).  Visit the stand to see the  in-store solution in action.

The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (“BNY Mellon”) today announced a new suite of oversight and contingent Net Asset Value (NAV) calculation solutions to complement its existing fund accounting capabilities for clients. These new services are designed to drive greater transparency, efficiency and risk management for asset managers and asset owners.

BNY Mellon’s new NAV offerings, which are platform and provider agnostic, set a new industry standard for clients with three key features:

• NAV Review: independent NAV oversight and reporting for funds administered across multiple providers
• Oversight with Expected NAV: independently calculated per-share value of a fund that is intended to assist with the execution of control and oversight responsibilities
• Back-Up & Contingent NAV: transparency and oversight into independently calculated NAV in the event the primary account platform or provider is unavailable

Clients will benefit from enhanced controls and more efficient NAV reviews, while ensuring contingent NAV production across all asset classes in a single-provider or multiple-provider operating model.

These expanded BNY Mellon capabilities leverage its recent alliance with institutional investment solutions provider Milestone Group (“Milestone”) and its digital investment platform pControl™. This alliance builds on BNY Mellon’s efforts to create innovative and transformative solutions to better serve clients through its open architecture strategy.

“As we see an increased demand for NAV oversight and backup NAV, we are pleased to provide our clients with these new solutions through our collaboration with Milestone,” said James Slater, Global Head of Business Solutions at BNY Mellon. “This is yet another example of our leadership role in solving industry challenges and commitment to delivering expanded capabilities. We remain focused on advancing our capabilities and seeking opportunities to partner with industry leaders such as Milestone to enrich and broaden the solutions available to our clients.”

“We are delighted to partner with BNY Mellon to deliver enhanced oversight and contingent NAV capabilities to the investment management industry,” said Geoff Hodge, Executive Chairman of Milestone Group. “These topics have attracted increasing attention by regulators and fund boards globally, and unlike current market offerings, these solutions have been designed to encompass all of the characteristics needed to meet best practice in terms of independence and resilience during a major or multi-day outage, particularly for larger players.”