Wematch, the global multi-asset-class, web-based matching and negotiation platform, has appointed Jack Jeffery as Chairman of its Board.

With more than 35 years’ experience in financial markets, Jack was previously CEO at electronic fixed income platform MTS and also at EBS, the spot FX electronic broking platform. Jack served 11 years at Citigroup, where he was Global Head of FX options.

Jack has previously served on the Bank of England and US Federal Reserve Foreign Exchange committees and his appointment follows Wematch’s recent funding round, which saw banking titans J.P. Morgan and Société Générale - both users of Wematch - invest in the fintech. There are now 40 banks and more than 750 traders using Wematch’s platform, with more currently onboarding.

Wematch provides technology to transform how traders match, negotiate and manage trades. This brings the audit and control benefits of electronic tools to trading, delivered as web-based software-as-a-service technology. This significantly cuts costs and, enhances the orderly execution of processes for traders, enabling seamless settlement.

Despite the growth and benefits of e-trading, in some markets institutional investors still conduct most of this activity over the phone, or through interdealer brokers. It is estimated that more than 80% of structured products and 80% of FX derivatives are still transacted by voice. To put it into context, the interest rate swaps market is worth $2.1 trillion a day, with more than 70% of that business handled by phone negotiation.

Jack Jeffery, Chairman of Wematch, said: “The Wematch platform represents an extraordinarily significant step forward in the world of inter-bank trading. Its proprietary architecture enables enhanced efficiencies, providing enormous cost benefits as well as improving regulatory compliance. As a neutral platform that is constantly developing to the markets’ needs, Wematch is reshaping the trading market. It is the right product at the right time.

“Having built my career bringing electronic innovation to the capital markets, I am thrilled to be part of a team that is leading such a profound transformation in the market.”

Joseph Seroussi, co-CEO of Wematch, said: “The voice market remains robust and an integral part of the trading process – its continued usage is a demonstration of its fundamental importance to participants’ business. But it is time that traders have the best technological tools to facilitate optimal trading with confidence. Jack Jeffery’s experience will be invaluable to Wematch as we work to bring the benefits of electronic trading’s auditing and transparency to traders across capital markets.”

Gregory Mimoun, co-CEO of Wematch, said: “Jack has an impeccable track record of steering technical innovation across multiple asset classes which have benefited those markets enormously.

“His appointment is a significant vote of confidence in our technology and our business. We are delighted to welcome him to Wematch as we move to the next exciting chapter in our vision to transform trading markets.”

Analytic software firm FICO announced today that the latest release of the FICO^® Cyber Risk Score is now available on AWS Marketplace. The latest release of the FICO Cyber Risk Score exceeds the published performance results of competitors by a factor of more than 5X, further solidifying FICO’s position as the most accurate security rating on the market. AWS Marketplace is a digital catalog with thousands of software listings from independent software vendors that make it easy to test, buy, and deploy software that runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS). The company made the announcement at its sold-out FICO World conference, which runs in New York City until November 7.

With this release, FICO’s scoring algorithm uses new globally collected micro signal data that improves the ability to quantify the risk an organization will suffer a debilitating cyber-attack in the next 12 months. These micro signals provide additional security risk indicators that are especially useful in evaluating small and medium-sized businesses.

“Cyber insurers all too frequently see the devastating impact that poor vendor risk management can have on an organization,” said Richard Spotswood, Head of Cyber & Technology at Barbican Insurance. “How these organizations assess and manage the cyber risk of third parties in their supply chain is of growing importance to insurance carriers and can help differentiate prospective insureds. FICO delivers an objective and empirical standard to help organizations in this assessment process, while AWS Marketplace makes this capability more easily accessible to all organizations.”

“Small and medium-sized businesses often have a smaller internet footprint than larger organizations, making specialized risk assessment techniques especially important,” said Doug Clare, FICO’s vice president for cyber security solutions. “Our new score gives both cyber insurance underwriters and vendor risk management teams the ability to measure security posture and breach exposure across their entire supply chain, along with workflows and dashboards designed specifically to stratify, compare and manage aggregate risk.”

“AWS Marketplace makes it is easier to discover, evaluate, and procure the FICO Cyber Risk Score,” said Garth Fort, director, AWS Marketplace, Amazon Web Services, Inc. “Given the level of urgency organizations have to address cyber risk, the streamlined contracting and provisioning process of AWS Marketplace expedites our customers’ ability to realize value from cyber security solutions.”

“Empirical cyber risk quantification is on the wish list of information security professionals, vendor risk managers, executive teams and board members around the globe,” said Clare. “Our new third-party risk management dashboards offer cyber risk visibility across the supply chain, all backed by the rigorous methodologies and analytical expertise that have made FICO the trusted name in risk scoring.”

On November 19, FICO will host a complimentary webinar on “Quantifying Cyber Risk across the Supply Chain.” This session will highlight how the FICO^® Cyber Risk Score enables organizations to apply objective security ratings to vendor selection, categorization and management. In addition, registrants will receive a summary of the 2019 Cyber Risk Quantification Solutions report by Chartis Research, which explains the importance of adopting a rigorous supply chain risk management regime and includes an analysis that rates FICO as category leader. Interested parties can register here.

A new report from Chartis Research named FICO as a category leader in cyber risk quantification. To learn more about the FICO^® Cyber Risk Score visit https://cyberscore.fico.com

CaixaBank, Spain’s leading retail bank, has opened “all in one” Barcelona, its new flagship hub in the city. This new conceptual space was created by the company to revolutionise customer experience in the physical service channel.

Located in the emblematic Francesc Macià square, in one of the city's few Bauhaus-style buildings, “all in one” Barcelona opens as Europe’s largest financial experience hub. With 3,000 square metres distributed over three floors, the flagship space offers specialised attention for all financial business models, both for individuals (with specialist advisers in Retail Banking, Premier Banking and Private Banking) and for self-employed workers and micro-enterprises (Business) and companies (CaixaBank Empresas).

In total, the new hub has a team of 80 employees, servicing a portfolio of 22,000 customers. With a broad service offering, the space includes specific areas for attending every type of customer, a café, an auditorium, more than 30 offices for private meetings, as well as the latest technology in financial services, including ATMs with facial recognition and an advanced combination of mobile apps and self check-in machines to identify customers and let advisers know they have arrived.

“all in one” Barcelona will be operational for customers starting tomorrow, 6 November. The project was presented this afternoon by Juan Antonio Alcaraz, CaixaBank's Managing Director, and María Alsina, territorial director of CaixaBank in Barcelona.

During the presentation Juan Antonio Alcaraz emphasised that “CaixaBank has once again decided to promote innovation in the physical channel, after becoming the first company to begin the transformation of traditional bank branches in 2013 by designing the Store branch, which over the years have become the standard for the entire sector”. In that sense, Alcaraz stressed how the new hub constitutes a unique innovation project on an international scale: “We have united design, technology and customer knowledge to create an absolutely exclusive model. In terms of surface area, “all in one” is the largest flagship banking hub in Europe. In terms of customer experience quality, we want it to be the best”.

Furthermore, María Alsina emphasised the open design of “all in one”: “This hub wants to be far more than a branch, but somewhere where all businesses converge. It is aimed at all types of customers and not only offers the best financial services, but also gastronomic and other valuable content. It will be open to the entire city. “all in one” was born at the service of CaixaBank's customers, but also at the service of Barcelona”.

Design and technology for a one-of-a-kind experience

“all in one” constitutes a complete transformation of the financial customer experience, thanks, above all, to the application of technology to innovate all the distinctive elements of a bank branch.

At “all in one”, the visit experience begins long before arriving. Via CaixaBankNow, customers have access to a notifications system on their mobile that reminds them of their appointment and invites them to confirm it or, if need be, change it.

Anyone who comes to “all in one” with an appointment won't have to wait in the queue to see their advisor: customers can use their mobile to notify that they have arrived, and the person waiting for them will come out to meet them. In this sense, CaixaBank has designed a self check-in system with NFC: customers need only touch their mobile phone to a device located at the entrance of “all in one” so that the system can identify them. Then, the assigned adviser will receive them.

Technology is fundamental at “all in one” and has a notable presence across all areas. The entrance stands out for the spectacular surround screens installed, and CaixaBank has created specific audiovisual content for “all in one”, designed to welcome customers with images of natural landscapes. The goal is to offer a visual only experience that, combined with the space's scent—created exclusively for “all in one”—, and atmospheric music, promotes the sensation of having arrived at an “urban oasis”, a space that is completely different to usual commercial standards.

The self-service area at “all in one” features the latest advances in ATMs, including facial recognition technology designed by CaixaBank to allow customers to withdraw cash using an image of their face, without having to enter their PIN. This is a pioneering development on the world stage that recently received The Banker award for being one of the year's best technological projects in the financial sector.

Beyond finance: "Natural” café and CaixaBank Talks

Alongside the visual elements and technology, the “all in one” Barcelona experience is rounded off with a range of services and possibilities that go beyond strictly banking.

For example, “all in one” integrates “Natural”, the first café from the Torres brothers. These prestigious chefs, who have two Michelin stars to their name, are joining the “all in one” project by opening a new café concept that will be open to all, customers and non-customers of CaixaBank. A completely innovative concept, “Natural”, is a space where people can eat well and quickly, in fitting with their own daily routines, or sit for a chat over coffee. The Torres brothers have designed a healthy, creative gastronomic offer based on tapas, salads, sandwiches, desserts, juices, coffees and teas, all with the highest quality.

Similarly, “all in one” Barcelona will have a monthly programme of discussions, lectures, round tables and events on all topics of interest. These are open to anyone interested, whether a CaixaBank customer or not. This initiative, called CaixaBank Talks, will typically take place in the agora space, an auditorium that holds around one hundred spectators and is equipped with the latest audiovisual technologies, as the different events will be available for streaming online.

The dining services and the event programme aim to strengthen the nature of “all in one” as a space that is open to all the city. The "Natural” café will open Monday to Saturday from 8:30 AM to 10:00 PM, and Sunday from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. As for the branch itself, it will open to the public Monday to Thursday from 8:30 AM to 6:30 PM, uninterrupted, and Friday from 8:30 AM to 2:30 PM.

CaixaBank, a leader in the innovation of bank branches

“all in one” Barcelona is the second of CaixaBank's new model of spaces, following the opening of “all in one” Valencia in July, in a 2,200-square-metre space located in the city's City Hall Plaza.

CaixaBank has constantly innovated the branch service channel throughout its history. In 2013, the company became the first in the sector to opt for a new branch model when creating the “Store” branches. These offered significant innovations over traditional branches in terms of design (with open spaces and the elimination of barriers between advisers and customers), opening hours (uninterrupted from morning to evening) and the service model (featuring advisers specialising in different areas of individual banking). Currently, this concept already has over 400 branches across the whole of Spain.

Furthermore, CaixaBank has also opted for innovation in its physical spaces with imaginCafé. This space occupying 1,200 square metres is located in Barcelona and is inspired by the values of the imaginBank brand, the mobile-only bank created by CaixaBank for young people. imaginCafé, open since 2017, offers a robust activity programme and has been set up as a platform for online and offline contents.

Horizon Software (Horizon), the world’s leading provider of electronic trading solutions and algorithmic technology, has announced the availability of a new execution algorithm, the implementation shortfall, adding significant and unique improvements in automated trading to its already market-leading solution. The key benefits of these enhancements, which will be available globally, also include the improvements of the existing algos.

Horizon Software currently automates highly sophisticated trading strategies for the execution of large orders with the TWAP (Time-weighted average price), VWAP (Volume weighted average price) and POV (Percentage of Volume) algorithms, all fully available. These algorithms have been improved with the ability to automatically execute not only during the intra-day trading period but also during the opening and closing auctions to benefit from the most pricing opportunities.

In addition to the existing algorithms’ enhancements, Horizon just released a new algo to manage the implementation shortfall strategy. This strategy aims at setting up two levels of spots and three levels of participation rate. The implementation of the new algo enables to adapt the participation rate to the spot evolution. This new algo is even stronger with the choice to either define fixed levels of trading spots or follow the VWAP plus or minus a percentage along the execution.  

The strategy will increase the targeted participation rate when the stock price moves favourably and decrease it when the stock price moves adversely.

Vincent Dumontoy, Global Head of Client Solutions and Services at Horizon commented: “We are delighted to offer these improved highly sophisticated algorithms and to see the array of benefits they will bring to our client base. Apart from profit opportunities for the trader, algo-trading renders markets more liquid and trading more systematic. This new release of algorithms has been enriched so our clients can trade at the best possible prices with significant reduced human mistakes.”

Dumontoy continued: “Clients are using our execution algorithms, so trades are timed correctly and instantly to benefit from significant price changes. Our software offers a single platform to embed custom algorithmic strategies and we believe Horizon is uniquely positioned on the automated trading market by offering a very flexible algo framework that allows the traders to “trade their way” or benefit from an advanced set of execution algorithms based on our strong expertise in algo-trading.”

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the bank of the world’s most innovative businesses and their investors, today announced that it has established a presence in Denmark to meet the needs of Danish companies and their investors within the technology and life sciences sectors.

SVB has chosen Denmark as the next location in its expansion strategy due to the country’s growing talent base and strong ecosystem for entrepreneurs, providing SVB a greater presence in the Nordic region. The bank has already worked with more than 20 companies in the region, such as Trustpilot and Siteimprove, and has over a decade of working with leading European businesses through its offices in in the UK, Ireland, Israel and Germany.

SVB’s presence in Denmark will enable the bank to work with high-growth companies, connecting them to the bank’s extensive network of investors and advisers and helping them take their businesses to the next level.

Effective immediately, Sebastian Penn has been appointed Managing Director for Denmark and will be based in Copenhagen. Penn was previously based in San Francisco as Director of DenmarkBridge and held senior roles at Vækstfonden, The World Bank and the Danish Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs.

“Denmark presents an exciting opportunity for us to expand our European operations and we are thrilled to welcome Sebastian on board,” said Erin Platts, Head of EMEA and President of the UK Branch of Silicon Valley Bank. “Our expansion into Denmark is a key milestone for SVB and underscores our commitment to the European technology landscape. It allows us to broaden the network of companies we serve, while contributing to the growth of the global innovation economy.”

Sebastian Penn, Managing Director of Denmark added, “I’m delighted to join SVB to lead our presence in Denmark and the Nordics.  There is a huge amount of activity taking place in this market with lots of inspiring businesses. We believe our increased presence will bring real value to local businesses here, particularly for those planning to grow quickly and internationally.”

Client reaction to SVB’s Nordic expansion news

Trustpilot: Hanno Damm, Chief Financial Officer at Copenhagen-based Trustpilot, said: “We're a global business with offices in seven cities in six countries globally, but our roots are Nordic, particularly in Denmark where we were founded and still headquartered. While digital technology is by definition global and not local, I certainly find there to be considerable differences in the tech cultures in Silicon Valley versus, say, the UK and the Nordics. Throughout our relationship, we've found Silicon Valley Bank has a great understanding of all three and we're pleased to see them now deepening their roots in the Nordic region with a presence in Denmark.”

Siteimprove: Martin Wagner, Chief Financial Officer at Siteimprove, said: “We are excited on behalf of the vibrant SaaS growth companies in Denmark and the Nordics to now have a truly growth- focused bank in the region to challenge the existing offerings. Siteimprove has partnered with SVB for two years and the SVB team has helped us maintain our growth and invest in profitable initiatives to the benefit of employees and shareholders.”

SWIFT today announces initiation of the development phase with EBA CLEARING to migrate the large-value payment system EURO1 to the ISO 20022 standard, marking the next step in a transformation journey they began together last year.

The two organisations will work toward a November 2021 completion date to correspond with the deadline for the ISO 20022 migration of the Eurosystem’s TARGET2 platform. The goal is to align specifications and milestones to minimise effort by market participants during the transition and ensure seamless intra-day switching between both euro payment systems.

ISO 20022 creates a new language and structure for payments information, enabling the exchange of more and higher quality data that in turn improves efficiency, compliance and client experiences. Payment systems of all reserve currencies are moving to the standard, and SWIFT has put in place a robust programme to facilitate community-wide adoption.

Alain Raes, Chief Business Development Officer, SWIFT said: “The migration to ISO 20022 is a significant inflection point in the payments industry that promises a new era of possibilities. We are pleased to work with EBA CLEARING to unlock the potential and further a partnership of innovation that spans two decades. EURO1 users can count on us to support them throughout and deliver the same robust security, resilience and reliability that are hallmarks of the SWIFT network.”

SWIFT has provided the messaging layer for EURO1 and served as processing agent for the system operated by EBA CLEARING since its launch in January 1999.

The ISO 20022 migration is part of a larger future positioning programme that the two organisations announced last year after a comprehensive consultation with EURO1 users. The project seeks to evolve EURO1 in line with user expectations while maintaining benefits such as liquidity efficiency, immediate payment finality, cost-effectiveness and added resilience for high-value payments. The first deliverables, including a dashboard to enhance liquidity monitoring capabilities of EURO1 users, will be implemented before the end of 2019.

Erwin Kulk, Head of Service Development and Management, EBA CLEARING, said: “Since its launch in 1999, EURO1 has generated substantial cost savings for its participants and, with the migration to ISO 20022, it will be able to continue to do so in the future. We are striving to keep the EURO1-related efforts to a strict minimum for our users. To this effect, we are pleased that we are ready to move forward with our system developments in time and in maximal alignment with TARGET2, together with our EURO1 users and our long-standing EURO1 technology partner SWIFT.”

EURO1 is the only private sector large-value payment system for single same-day euro transactions at a pan-European level and has been identified as a systemically important payment system (SIPS) by the European Central Bank.

EURO1 processes on average 200,000 payments per day with an average total value of over EUR 200 billion. The system currently counts 45 participant banks and reaches nearly 20,000 BICs in and beyond Europe.

Michiel Kwaaitaal, Director of Payments at Rabobank: "We are glad that our customers can start using Apple Pay from now on. New in the Netherlands is that we also make the use of Apple Pay possible for self-employed professionals. It is another new way to make banking easier and faster, wherever you are. Now that Apple Pay is available, we expect an enormous boost for mobile payments.”

Apple Pay is easy to set up. With a few clicks, users are able to select Apple Pay in their Rabo Banking App. The next step is selecting the correct payment account and the debit card can be added to the Wallet app.

With their iPhone and Apple Watch, customers can pay with Apple Pay in stores, restaurants, taxis, vending machines and many more places. When shopping in apps or on the web in Safari with Apple Pay, there’s no need to manually fill out lengthy account forms or repeatedly type in shipping and billing information. Every Apple Pay purchase is authenticated with just a glance or a touch with Face ID or Touch ID, or a device's passcode.

Security and privacy are at the core of Apple Pay. When you use a credit or debit card with Apple Pay, the actual card numbers are not stored on the device, nor on Apple servers. Instead, a unique Device Account Number is assigned, encrypted and securely stored in the Secure Element on your device. Each transaction is authorized with a one-time unique dynamic security code.

Rabobank is working on the release of Apple Pay for SMEs.

MoneyGram International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MGI), a global provider of innovative money transfer services, previously announced it has extended its agreement with Walmart to continue to provide MoneyGram-branded money transfer, 'powered by' white-label Walmart2World money transfer, bill payment and money order services into 2021.

As announced yesterday by Walmart, the MoneyGram 'powered by' Walmart2World white-label money transfer service will now be joined by other brands in becoming part of a marketplace of money transfer services at Walmart stores across the United States. MoneyGram believes that its leading brand, competitive foreign exchange rates and industry-leading anti-fraud and compliance processes will help drive the future success of the marketplace.

Walmart and MoneyGram have collaborated to provide leading financial service solutions for consumers in the United States for more than two decades. MoneyGram and Walmart continue to align and partner on the future of the industry and have innovated to not only offer the world's leading money transfer service, but to also protect consumers from fraud. MoneyGram pioneered ID requirements for all cash send and receive transactions in the United States, and as a result has the single most accurate KYC (know-your-customer) processes. This commitment to protecting consumers and their money has also resulted in MoneyGram having the lowest fraud rate in the industry.

The previously-announced contract extension serves as a testament that Walmart recognizes the high-quality of the MoneyGram network, which includes numerous strategic relationships around the globe, features will-call transfers and offers customers the greatest choice and convenience to pick up transactions at any MoneyGram network location in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. Other providers limit flexibility and location options for consumers; therefore, the MoneyGram-branded and 'powered by' white-label Walmart2World service should continue to be the top choices for Walmart customers and associates alike.

For the third quarter of 2019, the MoneyGram 'powered by' white-label Walmart2World product represented approximately 9% of total company revenues. At this time, it is difficult to predict exactly how this new Walmart marketplace will impact current transaction volumes and profit margins. Any impact to financial results will depend on a variety of factors including timing of the rollout to the marketplace, how the products are placed at the point-of-sale and how aggressively the competition chooses to price its foreign exchange.   

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 $36.4 billion in October 2019.  This represents an increase of 5.2% compared to October 2018.

No other platform reaches as many, as varied, and as comprehensive a set of FX products and participants as Integral OCX^TM.  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.

Wirecard, the global innovation leader for digital financial technology, is investing in a comprehensive license portfolio for digital payments through an acquisition in China. Wirecard will gradually acquire all shares in the Bejing-based AllScore Payment Services. AllScore Payment Services is currently controlled in its majority by its founder and CEO Mr. Yao Lin and Shanghai Aiwu Investment Management Co. Ltd.. The framework agreement was signed in Beijing today. After the closing, which is subject to customary and regulatory closing conditions, Wirecard will hold 80 percent of all shares in AllScore. A call option enables Wirecard to acquire the remaining 20 percent of shares after two years.

This step underlines Wirecard’s strategy to expand its global technology platform by way of cross-border licenses. In the current industry-wide effort to enter China, Wirecard is among the first movers in its peer group.

AllScore Payment Services, founded in 2007, is a local Payment Service Provider owning an attractive license portfolio and employing a dedicated team of more than 120 people. The license portfolio enables Wirecard to offer internationally oriented Chinese merchants local acquiring services, cross-border acquiring including settlement in their local currency and innovative digital value added services. Additionally, the international merchants of Wirecard gain access to Chinese consumers and are enabled to accept widely-used digital mobile payments methods and receive settlements in their respective local currency. The license portfolio also provides Wirecard with the capability to issue payment cards to consumers and companies in China.

Markus Braun, CEO at Wirecard: “We are excited to share the news of Wirecard entering China. The Chinese market represents a tremendous opportunity for Wirecard. The licenses are a perfect match to the global platform strategy of Wirecard.”

Yao Lin, CEO, Chairman and Founder of AllScore Payment Service Co., Ltd.: “We welcome Wirecard to China and are proud that they have selected us to enter the market, joining in on the efforts of the Chinese Government to open the financial sector and improve the regulatory environment for market access to foreign investors. Wirecard’s demonstrated history in expanding a global, digital business and their professional approach to execution, combined with our local knowledge and licenses make us an ideal combination to serve Chinese merchants, as well as international clients doing business in China.”

The consideration in connection with this transaction comprises cash payments, including a capital increase of AllScore Payment Services, of up to EUR 72.4 million until closing. Subject to customary closing date account adjustments the minimum payment will amount to EUR 38.6 million. Furthermore, an earn-out payment of up to EUR 16.7 million has been agreed to, subject to EBITDA targets in the fiscal year 2020. Wirecard holds a call option to acquire the remaining 20 percent of shares after two years for up to EUR 20.2 million, subject to post-closing EBITDA targets.

For fiscal 2020, Wirecard projects a low single-digit EBITDA contribution in EUR after integration costs. The integrated company will generate more than EUR 35 million of EBITDA in 2021 and an EBITDA in excess of EUR 50 million in 2022.