Wealth management fintech firm JHC Systems (JHC) today announces that Finzo, a New Zealand-based integrated financial solutions provider, will be implementing JHC Neon (Neon). This means Finzo will be able to consolidate portfolios across all accounts to give a 360-degree view of client positions. This is JHC’s first New Zealand-based client, secured through its partnership with MyFiduciary, and represents the first FNZ platform client to integrate JHC technology following its acquisition of JHC in August 2019.

Australia’s wealth management industry has been undergoing dramatic change since the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, while in New Zealand the regulatory standards are rising in response to this.  Organisations such as Finzo are deploying new technologies to ensure that they are able to better serve their clients and satisfy the likely tougher standards under the new financial adviser provider ‘FAP’ licensing regime in 2020.

Neon, a cloud-based wealth management solution, enables the business to monitor all of its client portfolios against drift on risk and volatility, using FNZ data feed analysis on a daily basis. The technology provides an immediate, aggregated view of the client's relationship with the firm, including dashboard views for investment managers and C-Suite.

Nick Stewart, CEO at Finzo said, “Having previously relied on manual, slow and cumbersome processes to monitor risk, Neon gives us the power to look at our clients like we have never done before. The ease-of-use means that anyone in the business can open up Neon and get all the portfolio oversight they need both in the office and whilst mobile. We’ve been with FNZ for three years, and it was clear that these two products would complement each other well. Plus, we’re looking at only weeks to implement rather than months or years.  It will form a key component of our compliance reporting for DIMS licensing and FAP requirements across Finzo member firms.” 

John Blackman, CEO at JHC said: “We’re delighted that our partnership with MyFiduciary has meant we’re able to reach a new market where there is demand for technology like Neon. Finzo will now be able to monitor risk in a way it never has before using both FNZ and JHC technology.”

Aaron Drew, Director at MyFiduciary, commented: “Firms managing wealth need to have robust investment processes, and Neon is a state-of-the-art tool that enhances and automates portfolio monitoring, risk analysis and investment compliance across all client portfolios.  We believe it is simply not good enough in a post-Royal Commission environment that these processes remain manual, partial and prone to error.”

Signicat, the Trusted Digital Identity™ company and European market leader for trusted digital identity services, has partnered with Swisscom Trust Services, strengthening its Digital Identity Platform with qualified electronic signature (QES) functionality. Signicat can now offer the digital equivalent of a legally binding handwritten signature, meeting the highest level of the EU‘s eIDAS standards for electronic signatures.

The integration of Swisscom’s qualified electronic signatures ensures that Signicat’s customers benefit from qualified electronic signatures, within a suite of identity verification and authentication systems.

The Signicat platform enables digital trust via a number of sources, from social logins to eIDAS. The solution focuses on usability, providing customers with a frictionless customer experience, while still maintaining appropriate trust levels. Customers identities‘ are verified in a few quick steps which allows businesses to transact effieciently.

“Expanding our platform to cover QES enhances our ability to meet our customer’s needs for secure, regulatory-compliant digital identity services,” said Gunnar Nordseth, CEO of Signicat. “Swisscom Trust Services has convinced us with its agility and expertise to translate high legal requirements into technology. Our combined joint offerings complement each other and together we enable customers to easily further develop their business models."

"In Signicat, we have found a partner who not only complements our offering, but also shares our vision," commented Marco Schmid, Head of International Expansion Strategy at Swisscom. "Customers today demand a smooth digital customer journey and will not tolerate friction. Together with Signicat, we enable companies to live up to this expectation and thus develop their innovation potential."

Consolidating its strong position in the digital cross-border payments space in Southeast Asia, the recently-rebranded NIUM (formerly, InstaReM) has received the Fund Transfers license from the Bank Indonesia. With NIUM’s innovative payments platform, retail consumers, Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Financial Institutions and the other payment service providers in Indonesia can look forward to a seamless digital experience while moving money – whether sending or receiving - across borders.

NIUM-powered PT InstaReM Mitra Indonesia is registered as a Fund Transfer Operator with the Bank Indonesia to remit and transmit funds in and out of Indonesia. NIIUM’s digital money transfer service will enable consumers and enterprises in Indonesia to send money to over sixty destinations globally efficiently and cost-effectively.

The NIUM platform will also enable globally-connected enterprises and fintech companies in Indonesia to make B2B commercial payments, issue their own-branded employee expense cards, supplier card payments and customer cards. The NIUM platform will also enable the enterprise users in Indonesia to automate and expedite the receipt of multi-currency payments from the different parts of the world with account real-time receivable tracking. 

Prajit Nanu, Co-founder and CEO of NIUM (formerly known as InstaReM) said:

“We already serve Indonesia as an inbound market and are excited to launch our complete value proposition now with the new license that empowers us to conduct outbound transfers from Indonesia. With Indonesia’s enterprising population increasingly connecting with their global counterparts, we see immense potential for cross-border money movements in and out of Indonesia. One of the most promising markets in the Asia, Indonesia offers a great ecosystem for fintech services like NIUM to develop and grow. We are confident that NIUM’s innovative payments solutions will enable individual and enterprise users in Indonesia to send, spend and collect money to and from any part of the world – while saving on high transaction costs that are associated with traditional methods.”

NIUM’s Indonesian operations will be headed by the industry veteran Vadyo Munaan, who comes with extensive experience in financial services and payments industry at reputed organisations including Citibank GCB, Cigna International, Mastercard, Visa, Banks of Indonesia and MoneyGram.

"With growing individual remittances, cross-border trade, e-commerce, and freelancing opportunities, there is an urgent need for an efficient platform in Indonesia that addresses the needs of different stakeholders while sending or receiving payments across borders. With its unmatched technological capabilities and strong global banking partnerships, NIUM's digital platform promises to take the pain out of the process. NIUM's global presence adds extensive payments network to the country’s cross-border payments infrastructure. We are delighted to introduce to Indonesia a full suite of NIUM products and services offering, which is coming at the perfect time to meet the changing needs of the market," says Vadyo.

Pure Storage (NYSE: PSTG), the data solutions leader that helps innovators build a better world with data, has expanded its global presence with the opening of a new European Research & Development Centre in Prague, Czech Republic. The opening marks further significant investment in the EMEA region and demonstrates Pure’s continued commitment to innovation.

Pure was founded with innovation at its core, with a customer-first mind-set. This new EMEA hub is designed to fuel Pure’s innovation engine, and further accelerate time-to-market.

In 10 years, Pure has disrupted the storage industry by creating solutions that are intelligent, automated, and modern, setting a bold path for Pure in its second decade. Pure’s vision of the modern data experience is cloud-managed, AI-driven, constantly improving, and consumable via a flexible subscription model that can be deployed in a hybrid environment.

Pure has worked with CzechInvest, a local business and investment development agency to open this new R&D centre in Prague. The Government-backed organisation aides global companies to establish in the Czech Republic. CzechInvest’s access to local experts, partnerships with academic institutions and existing focus on research and development were important support mechanisms in opening the R&D centre in the Czech Republic.

Recognizing that talent can be found worldwide, and innovation is only driven through a diverse workforce, the centre will be run with a start-up mind-set designed to encourage a culture of inclusivity, innovation and customer-centricity.

The centre will be headed by Dan Decasper, General Manager of Pure1®, the company’s cloud-based software platform. Commenting on the launch of the centre, Decasper said: “I’m thrilled that on our 10^th anniversary we maintain the same commitment to innovation that we had on day one. We’ve experienced tremendous growth and have always believed in investing back into talent acquisition and expansion. We chose Prague because great talent can be found here, and it’s a gateway to the rest of the region.”

Today Pendo Systems is proud to announce a key strategic technology alliance with WSN. WSN is a global consulting and resourcing company with over 150 employees across the U.S., UK, and Europe. They provide consulting services, resourcing services and business process automation solutions to a diversified client base including banks, brokers, hedge funds and insurance companies. 

WSN is led by Alex Ciccotelli in the U.S. and Gary Keane in the UK. The firm is actively helping its financial services clients through the digital transformation process. 

"Our clients have long been focused on increasing efficiency and lowering infrastructure costs. By partnering with Pendo, we are able to help our clients more quickly and cost-effectively prepare for change initiatives such as IBOR replacement and QFC," said Alex Ciccotelli, Co-Founder, WSN.

The Pendo platform transforms unstructured data into addressable, machine-readable content that can be consumed via downstream intelligent automation systems – which makes it the perfect tool to place at the center of any digital transformation initiative. The platform has been deployed across an extensive list of use cases that amply demonstrate why it can become an integral part of a digital transformation ecosystem.

"We couldn't be happier to be working with Alex and Gary's company, and believe this is yet another key partnership that will enhance Pendo's offering in the marketplace. Their knowledge of the financial services business, their extensive experience and wealth of industry contacts will help to position both of our companies to grow exponentially over the next few years," said Pamela Pecs Cytron, Founder/CEO Pendo Systems.

Chainalysis, the blockchain analysis company, today announced the launch of Chainalysis Kryptos, new software designed to help financial institutions better understand the risks associated with existing cryptocurrency activity and opportunities for investment. Built on the reference data standard already trusted by government agencies across the world and more than 115 leading cryptocurrency businesses, Kryptos enables financial professionals to connect the dots between traditional financial transactions and cryptocurrency markets.

In September, Chainalysis polled 350 finance professionals and found that nearly half believe Bitcoin will be the investment class with the highest growth rate over the next 12 months, ahead of equities, fixed income, and the house pricing index. Despite their belief in Bitcoin’s growth potential, many also expressed concerns about the ability to control illicit activity facilitated by cryptocurrency and to comply with regulations, and many aren’t sure how many of their customers transact with cryptocurrency today.

Kryptos provides transparency into cryptocurrency markets and players so financial institutions can allay these compliance concerns, better understand their current risk exposure, provide banking services to cryptocurrency businesses, and build foundations for expansion into the asset class.

“We've heard grass roots excitement for cryptocurrency from financial institutions for years, and now we're focused on breaking down the barriers to entry,” said Michael Gronager, Co-Founder and CEO, Chainalysis. “Finally, financial institutions can access the transparency they need to fulfill their compliance responsibilities, meet customer demand, and seize the market opportunity they already believe in."

"Chainalysis Kryptos is a powerful tool for institutions to use to evaluate the risk profile of global industry participants and to measure their counterparty risk," said Michelle Sabins, SVP Managing Principal, Silvergate. "Access to this information in a standardized way will help institutions in this space make informed business decisions regarding who they do business with, while leveraging the power of blockchain analysis."

Kryptos provides a view into Know Your Customer (KYC) practices and blockchain transaction data for the world’s top cryptocurrency businesses. Users can access information about exchanges’ business operations, country of operation, cryptocurrency assets supported, blockchain transaction activity, and counterparties. They can also quantify their risk exposure across wire transfers or credit card transactions with detailed company information that they can run through existing transaction monitoring systems and risk models.

“Our data puts us in a position to help financial institutions enter the cryptocurrency market safely and responsibly,” said Jonathan Levin, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Chainalysis. “Not only does Kryptos help them mitigate risk and access new high-growth markets, but it will also help cryptocurrency businesses build trust with their banks. All players in the cryptocurrency ecosystem stand to benefit from increased transparency.” 

Kryptos is now available in Beta and will become generally available in early 2020.

Identitii Limited (Identitii, Company) (ASX:ID8), the FinTech reducing last mile payment hold ups for banks and corporates, announces it has partnered with Symphony Communication Services, LLC (Symphony) to integrate its Overlay+ platform that enables secure and auditable data sharing, with Symphony’s leading global markets collaboration platform tool. The combined solution will enable Symphony’s 450,000 licenced users to securely collect, store and share data and documents via the Symphony messaging platform. 

Symphony is a California based technology company that offers secure messaging and collaboration tools for the most highly regulated industries, such as financial services. It provides enterprise-grade collaboration and communication software that enables financial institution teams to send messages, share files, automate trade flows and meet in real-time. 

Symphony is currently used by more than 400 financial institutions, with more than 450,000 licenced users across the globe. More than 60 million messages are sent via Symphony users each month. 

Under the partnership, Identitii’s tokenisation technology will be accessible via the Symphony messaging platform. The combined solution will add end-to-end, auditable information collection, storage and sharing to Symphony’s secure corporate chat and messaging service, allowing banks to replace costly manual document collection and retrieval processes without significantly impacting existing technology infrastructure.

Commenting on the partnership, Identitii CEO, Nick Armstrong said: 

“The combination of Overlay+ and Symphony will go a long way to eliminating manual processes for customers, supporting a better user experience and presenting information as needed, in real-time. Users will be able to conveniently request documents and information via the Symphony chatbot and the information will be retrieved via our tokenisation technology. We see enormous potential for this combined functionality.”

FactSet, a global provider of integrated financial information, analytical applications, and industry-leading service, announced that it has deployed the FactSet workstation on OpenFin, the financial industry’s operating system.

The use of OpenFin provides clients with the opportunity to leverage FactSet seamlessly and efficiently alongside proprietary, internally developed desktop applications. Users will also be able to integrate third-party applications available within the OpenFin ecosystem directly into their FactSet workflows.

This flexible access will be provided using the FDC3 interoperability standards. Through the adoption of open technology ecosystems such as OpenFin and standards such as FDC3, financial institutions have greater access and opportunity to build integrated workflow solutions using any FDC3-compliant application, such as FactSet, without the need to create bespoke back-end integration capabilities on their own. All data and applications on OpenFin can work together seamlessly whether built by a 3rd party provider or developed in-house. 

“FactSet is committed to being an open and flexible data and technology partner to our clients, and we are proud to be the first major market data and analytics provider to deploy on OpenFin,” said Gene Fernandez, Chief Technology and Product Officer, FactSet. “Clients are looking for increased technological flexibility across the board, and our work with OpenFin allows us to connect them to an even more robust universe of internal and external data and applications.” 

Today, OpenFin runs more than 1,000 applications at over 1,500 banks and buy-side firms across 200,000 desktops in 60+ countries. The FDC3 initiative was founded by OpenFin in collaboration with major banks, buyside, and vendor firms to create an ecosystem of interoperable applications. FactSet has been at the forefront of contributing to the FDC3 standards, which are now being developed under the auspices of FINOS, the Fintech Open Source Foundation.

“It is exciting to see global leaders like FactSet leverage increased openness and interoperable standards to deliver faster, more efficient client experiences,” said Mazy Dar, CEO, OpenFin. “Working with FactSet will further serve to accelerate a generational shift, not only in how we work across financial services, but also in how applications are developed, distributed, and maintained on industry desktops.”