Arcserve, LLC, the world’s most experienced data protection provider, today announced a global alliance with Sophos, a leader in network and endpoint security, to provide organisations with dedicated protection for backed up data against cyberthreats. Through this collaboration, organisations can now employ the only market solution that integrates anti-ransomware and other threat prevention technologies, such as deep learning AI for both known and unknown malware, and award-winning disaster recovery and high availability capabilities for prevention against data loss. Together, the new solution delivers a multi-layered approach to prevent, protect, and immunise backup data from cyber-attacks.

A report issued by Cybersecurity Ventures predicts the global cost of ransomware to reach $11.5 billion USD in 2019 and $20 billion USD by 2021, with an attack on businesses every 14 seconds by the end of this year. With cybercriminals continuously taking advantage of enterprises to turn profits, this alliance will provide organisations with a two-pronged approach to cyber-readiness and IT resilience. By combining both cybersecurity and data protection capabilities into a single offering, businesses will have a comprehensive solution that fully covers all their infrastructure needs.

The joint solution will be delivered via Arcserve’s award-winning Appliance Series, the only turnkey self-contained appliances for disaster recovery and application availability. Powered by Arcserve Unified Data Protection (UDP), the Arcserve Appliance Series combines flash-accelerated deduplicated storage, robust server processing, and high-speed networking with highly redundant hardware and cloud services.

Arcserve Appliances will integrate Sophos Intercept X Advanced for Server, award-winning endpoint protection with artificial intelligence, to deliver a comprehensive protect-in-depth approach to accelerate data, system and application resiliency.

“Increasingly cybercriminals are targeting backup systems as a way to increase the odds that compromised businesses will make a ransom payment. Having dedicated protection from both malware and the latest exploits ensures the backup data will stand strong against the most advanced threats,” said Francois Depayras, Sophos’ vice president of OEM sales and alliances. “Sophos Intercept X for Server provides anti-ransomware, anti-exploit and deep learning technology to provide the highest level of protection. This makes the Arcserve Appliance the most secure solution available in the market.”

“Too many organisations are being forced to have the ‘how do we pay ransom’ conversation. We saw a market gap that needed to be filled, and Sophos was the natural fit. We know data protection and they know cybersecurity,” said Oussama El-Hilali, CTO for Arcserve. “As threats become more difficult to combat, this alliance is transformative in the industry, taking our cyber protection to the next level and providing partners with the opportunity to educate customers on the unique benefits of an integrated, two-pronged defence against cybercrime.” 

Today, Klarna, the leading global disruptor of payments and banking and provider of smoooth retail services announces major UK milestones with the launch of its latest campaign — “No drama, just Klarna” — in partnership with some of the UK’s best-loved retailer brands. 

Taking Klarna’s payment revolution to the streets of six UK cities, the “No drama, just Klarna’ campaign includes a series of branded artworks displayed across key urban touch points — from buses and billboards to stations and screens. The theme of short rhymes for all thirteen retailers like, “I shop like a boss, ASOS”, to “Pay in three, JD” and “When I’ve decided, Missguided”, elevates Klarna’s mission to give customers the freedom to control how and when they pay with retailers. 

Hailed as Europe’s most valuable private fintech following a $5.5bn valuation earlier this summer, Klarna has seen strong momentum in the UK market. As the pioneer of payment empowerment, Klarna now has more than 50,000 new customers a week choosing ‘Pay later’ at retailer checkouts. 

Klarna’s unique offering with the addition of multiple services to smoothen the shopping experience online and offline, is clearly resonating with UK consumers. Klarna had over 12m transactions in the past year and in August alone, more than 100,000 UK shoppers downloaded the Klarna app. Offering easier, safer and smarter services, Klarna provides a refreshing shopping experience for UK consumers as they look for a better way to pay which gives them the convenience and flexibility they expect. 

Klarna has also seen a surge in retailer interest in offering the services and is now powering over 170,000 brands globally — including H&M, Quiz, Beauty Bay, Michael Kors and Superdry in the UK. Klarna’s services have proven to help retailers drive new customer acquisition average order value and retention. The momentum continues and global brands such Abercrombie & Fitch Co will soon be available to consumers throughout the UK by the end of the year. 

Klarna is now also partnering with UK retailers to further integrate the experience between digital and physical stores to give customers a seamless, personalised and engaging experience no matter where, when and how they shop. Klarna’s full range of products are now available in-store at selected retailers, transforming the check-out experience across touchpoints. With a strong adoption rate of in-store from major UK retailer partners including Mothercare, Thomas Sabo and iSmash — Klarna has seen in-store volumes in the UK grow over 300% in the first six months of 2019 and they join over 6,000 physical stores offering Klarna payments globally. 

Luke Griffiths, General Manager at Klarna UK, commented on the partnership:

“The growth we’ve seen since launching in the UK has been astounding, but I’m particularly proud of what we’ve been able to achieve in the last 12 months. Not only have we grown exponentially in terms of volumes and partners, but we’ve also grown our footprint across the UK with the launch of our Manchester office earlier this year.

“We know that customers love the flexibility and convenience that comes with alternative payments, and by delivering the best possible experience to shoppers, we’ve been able to partner with some remarkable brands and retailers in the UK. There are a number of significant announcements in the pipeline and I’m confident we’ll continue to go from strength to strength.”

Donna Storey, Global Digital & Marketing Director at Mothercare added:

“The latest campaign really brings to life the team mentality that we share with Klarna and shows how holistically the business thinks about its customers. We wanted to work with someone who recognised that payments were part of our wider drive to give shoppers a better experience across channels — not simply a different box to click at the till, and Klarna has absolutely delivered on that.”

SWIFT and Microsoft collaborated with Bank of New York Mellon Treasury Services, the first bank to execute a real-time payment (RTP) transaction in the US, to complete the test transaction validating their new Cloud Connect payments capability for banks, financial institutions and enterprises. Bank of New York Mellon executed the payment for Microsoft’s Treasury Department, confirming the Cloud Connect proof of concept unveiled at Sibos last year.

Cloud Connect hosts SWIFT infrastructure and enables payment transfers via Microsoft Azure – the Redmond, WA tech firm’s cloud-based platform. Belgium-headquartered SWIFT provides financial messaging services to more than 11,000 financial institutions in over 200 countries around the globe.

Until now, companies and financial institutions that wanted to initiate transactions through payment messages sent over the SWIFT network had to have their own on-premise installations of SWIFT technology. Hosting SWIFT infrastructure on the cloud instead of with every financial institution reduces the need for on-premise equipment, and enhances the speed, consistency and security of transaction processing. 

Microsoft's Treasury department and Bank of New York Mellon were the first to initiate a transaction over SWIFT Cloud Connect, transmitting instructions through the SWIFT network.

“We focus on delivering world class solutions that exceed our clients’ expectations,” said Bank of New York Mellon Treasury Services CEO Paul Camp. “Together with SWIFT, we work to enhance the payments experience for our clients around the world. Now, helping make SWIFT Cloud Connect real, we are pleased to collaborate with Microsoft to leverage their cloud expertise and advance the frontiers of financial technology, offering a new level of service for SWIFT participants.”

Payments are as much an issue for the computer tech giant as for any bank. Microsoft’s Treasury group manages more than $150 billion in assets and, dwarfing many financial institutions, transacts over $400 billion per year in SWIFT-based payments, supporting operations in more than 190 countries.

“Building on the positive experience with Cloud Connect,” Camp continued, “we look forward to exploring additional opportunities to advance Microsoft’s digital payments strategy.”

Craig Young, Chief Information Officer at SWIFT, said, “Cloud computing is a key enabler of a faster, frictionless future and a powerful catalyst for innovative new services. Our community is seizing its potential, and we are committed to supporting them with a range of connectivity options reflecting their diverse approaches and breadth of needs. These new developments highlight that commitment, while also underscoring our unwavering focus on security and resiliency as we continue to adapt to an evolving marketplace.”

Microsoft Corporate VP and Treasurer George Zinn commented, “From a Treasury perspective, the deployment of SWIFT messaging solutions in the cloud enables faster, more efficient and secure payment operations for all concerned. It’s exciting to see Microsoft Azure be the first cloud platform completing a wire transaction via this successful test of the proof-of-concept.  Having our trusted payments service provider BNY Mellon validate the capabilities of SWIFT Cloud Connect on Azure was an important validation point for us, and we look forward to working with BNY Mellon Treasury Services to ensure we continue to deploy the best possible payment solutions now and in future.”

Wolters Kluwer’s Finance, Risk & Reporting (FRR) business has signed its first client for its recently launched software-as-a-service (SaaS) Regulatory Reporting solution. BNG Bank, which is partiually owned by the State of the Netherlands, will use the solution to automate its regulatory reporting processes and to better ensure reconciliation of reporting between the bank’s own functional departments.

The SaaS solution, like the OneSumX for Regulatory Reporting on-premise solution, combines bank data into a single source of data to ensure consistency, ease of reconciliation and accuracy. It includes access to Wolters Kluwer’s unique Regulatory Update Service which is maintained by Wolters Kluwer experts who actively monitor regulation in 30 countries, factoring the potential impact of future changes into the OneSumX portfolio and ensuring clients’ ongoing compliance. As well as ensuring predictability of cost, the SaaS offering is a secure platform which provides flexibility of infrastructure for banks undergoing growth.

BNG Bank is a statutory two-tier company under Dutch law (structuurvennootschap). Half of the bank's share capital is held by the State of the Netherlands and the other half by municipal authorities, provincial authorities and a water board. It’s clients are local authorities and institutions for housing, healthcare, education, energy and infrastructure in the Netherlands. The bank provides customized financial services, ranging from loans and advances, payment services and electronic banking. BNG Bank also participates in public-private partnerships.

“BNG Bank recently started the implementation of an enterprise data warehouse, with the aim that this will become the source of all reports and analytical data sets within the organization,” commented Jeroen Speek, Head of Reporting at BNG Bank. “This single data foundation will form the basis for both internal and external reporting. In Wolters Kluwer we found the know how of a trusted partner with regulatory reporting prowess and technological expertise. Wolters Kluwer, with it’s award winning integrated regulatory compliance and reporting solutions, was the natural choice. We are looking forward to the extensive collaboration with Wolters Kluwer for the coming years.”

“Our newly launched SaaS solution offers the same functionality as the company’s on-premise product, based on our recently upgraded OneSumX Regulatory Engine technology platform which offers enhanced performance and better user experience, in terms of speed, automation and scalability,” commented Claudio Salinardi, Executive Vice President & General Manager of Wolters Kluwer FRR. “We are delighted that BNG Bank has chosen to implement the solution and look forward to working with the bank as it looks to build its enterprise data warehouse.”

Wolters Kluwer FRR, which is part of Wolters Kluwer’s Governance, Risk & Compliance division, is a global market leader in the provision of integrated regulatory compliance and reporting solutions, supporting regulated financial institutions in meeting their obligations to external regulators and their own boards of directors.

Wolters Kluwer FRR receives frequent independent recognition of its excellence and innovation. Risk magazine recently awarded the company its coveted Regulatory Reporting System of The Year Award for the second year running. Wolters Kluwer FRR is also this year’s Category Winner for Regulatory Reporting in the annual RiskTech100® report. This comprehensive study of the world’s leading risk and compliance technology companies is compiled by Chartis Research. Notably, this is the seventh time in eight years that Wolters Kluwer FRR has achieved this honor. Chartis Research has also named the firm a Category Leader in both its IFRS 9 Technology Solutions Report and CECL Report.

Specialist RegTech provider Shield is proud to announce the launch of Shield for small to medium sized (SME) investment firms, a dedicated new version of its cloud-based, cross-regulation and comprehensive eComms compliance platform that specifically caters for the needs of small and medium-sized financial services firms, which has been developed in response to industry demand.

Founder and CEO of Shield, Shiran Weitzman, states: “As part of our ongoing R&D we are constantly in discussion with financial sector businesses of all shapes and sizes to ensure Shield meets the rigorous demands of our customers. The SME segment is a vital one and our conversations and feedback highlighted the need for a specific version of our platform that is geared towards the unique requirements and budgets of these smaller, highly dynamic businesses.”

Increased regulatory pressure and ever-larger amounts of unstructured eComms data to process means the risk of breaching compliance rules has never been higher. This has also rendered manual investigations as ineffective and prohibitively expensive, particularly for smaller firms which have neither the human nor budgetary resources to do this.

This is where the expertise of Shield’s platform transforms compliance monitoring and investigation, using powerful automated processing to reduce risk, save costs and reduce processing time down from days to mere minutes. Shiran added, “Shield's new hub provides full compliance assurance for smaller businesses, whilst being highly affordable and simple to deploy and maintain – even for businesses that lack specific technical expertise.”

The Shield for SME features seamless cloud deployment helping SME firms cover elements within MiFID II, GDPR, SMR, MAR, ePrivacy, Dodd-Frank and many other regulations. The platform features extensive data source coverage including voice, email, instant messaging platforms or even FinChat, whilst covering and integrating with all existing data sources (structured or unstructured).

Shiran continued, “We understand that smaller businesses simply need a solution which can be rapidly deployed and easily used (with minimal training), but that also provides peace of mind that they are avoiding regulatory risk. A good example of this is the ‘Dear CEO’ letter recently sent to UK brokers from the FCA outlining the main focus points it will enforce and encouraging the firms to actively take measures to prevent those breaches if they wish to avoid fines.”

Shiran concluded, “Our new platform provides the perfect solution by making automated compliance monitoring simple, highly reliable and affordable. Featuring a highly intuitive user interface, it takes the strain and empowers SMEs to concentrate on their vital core activities with full assurance they are meeting their compliance obligations in full.”

Shield for SME is just the latest innovation to come from the company in its rapid evolution since launching in 2018. Shield also recently announced the opening of its new London office to meet the growing demands and needs of its customers in the UK.  

 Nutanix , a leader in enterprise cloud computing, has appointed Cyril VanAgt to lead its Channel and OEM activities in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Mr. VanAgt will oversee all of Nutanix's go-to-market relationships with resellers, distributors, regional system integrators and technology partners in the EMEA region, providing them with the capabilities needed to apply the company's cutting-edge technologies.

In particular, Mr. VanAgt will be responsible for driving the Nutanix Channel Charter, a strategic initiative to strengthen the company's relationships with the reseller community by empowering them to succeed throughout both the sales cycle and their own customers’ technology lifecycles, ultimately enabling all participants to compete in the modern era of multi-cloud needs and capabilities.

Mr. VanAgt joined Nutanix in October 2014 and has been responsible for channel sales in the Southern European territories of the EMEA region since then. In four years he structured the Nutanix distribution network and built a strong channel ecosystem in this part of EMEA. The organisation established by Mr. VanAgt enabled the readiness and autonomy of Nutanix channel partners in France, Italy, Iberia, Switzerland and French-speaking Africa, turning this region into a model for collaboration between Nutanix and its channel network. Mr. VanAgt's responsibilities were expanded further in 2018 with addition of OEM and alliance partner management.

Commenting on Mr. VanAgt's appointment, Sammy Zoghlami, Senior Vice President of Sales for the Europe, Middle East & Africa region, said: “I am delighted to have Cyril lead our Channel and OEM operations in EMEA. These relationships are critical routes to market for Nutanix and its solutions, and Cyril's vast experience in technology partnering and implementation, will see these partners gain maximum benefit and value from what these innovative products have to offer them.”

Mr. VanAgt joined Nutanix following a 14-year career at NetApp in France. He was educated at the ISEN Institut Supérieur d'Electronique et du Numérique, France, gaining a degree in micro-electronics, computer sciences and telecommunications engineering. He also holds a postgraduate qualification from the Télécom Paris institution in Image Processing & Television Systems.  

Equiniti Business Payment Services (formerly EQGlobal), the international payments division of Equiniti Group, is delighted to announce that it has partnered with SWIFT, the global provider of secure financial messaging services.

The partnership is announced at a time of significant investment for Equiniti Business Payment Services, a leading global business payment platform provider, as it enhances its customer experience though fast, flexible and reliable payments technology which operates with unrivalled accuracy.

The collaboration, which sees Equiniti Business Payment Services join SWIFT Alliance, will deliver clients a suite of products and services that include the widest and most cost-effective range of payment methods across a choice of speeds.

Equiniti Business Payment Services’ fast and accurate cross-border service - enhanced by SWIFT gpi technology - will also provide its customers with the ability to stop and recall payments and speed up the turnaround time for resolving failed or pending payments. 

Customers will be able to search and view all the variables linked to a specific currency and payment method across all countries via a user-friendly interface, underpinned by the centralised, reliable resource of SWIFTRef. It will also validate input data related to the payment method, beneficiary and corresponding bank details and provide real time feedback to customers to ensure all mandatory information is captured in the correct format. This will help achieve nearly a 100% straight through processing rate.

Through this partnership, Equiniti Business Payment Services will be able to transform the services it provides to all of its customers, in the UK and throughout the world.

Mark Churley (Managing Director of Equiniti Business Payment Services) and Cate Kemp (Head of UK, Ireland and Nordics at SWIFT) announce the partnership today through a signing ceremony at the annual Sibos event in London at 3pm on stand Q104.

Mark Churley, MD of Equiniti Business Payment Services, commented:

“Payments is at the core of our business and as a Group we are responsible for processing over £100 billion in value each year. We are delighted to be partnering with industry leaders SWIFT. This partnership provides us with new innovations which will transform our customer offering, domestically and internationally.”

“There will be tangible benefits to our customers with the speed of payments increasing, an improved customer experience with real-time tracking, responsive validation and insights into payment requirements and reduced time to resolve cases of failed or pending payments. We are investing heavily to maintain our market-leading proposition and this partnership is just the first step of many in this journey.”

Cate Kemp, Head of UK, Ireland and Nordics at SWIFT, commented: “We are delighted to extend our relationship with Equiniti in what is such an exciting time for our industry. With gpi, we are transforming the speed, transparency and traceability of cross-border payments across the globe. By partnering and innovating with our customers we are able to offer client centric innovation and reduced friction enabling cross-border transactions that are as seamless and as real-time as domestic payments.” 

Objectway, a leading provider in the Digital Wealth, Investment & Asset Management sector, announced they have ranked #79 on the 2019 IDC FinTech Rankings.

This is the fifth consecutive year Objectway have appeared on this prestigious list.

The Fortune 500-style ranking categorises and evaluates the top global providers of financial technology based on calendar year revenues from financial institutions.

To thrive in a digital economy, financial services organizations must embrace innovative and integrate cutting edge technology effectively to enhance the customer experience and achieve operational excellence. Being featured on the IDC FinTech Rankings represents committment to helping financial institutions successfully execute their digital transformation initiatives for their customers.

“Having improved our ranking by five positions in the IDC top 100 testifies how our growth strategy is effectively working,” commented Luigi Marciano, Objectway CEO and Founder. “Our combination of financial expertise and technology patterns with a deep understanding of the market’s specific business needs brings to the market the credibility of an established player and the innovation of a dynamic fintech.”

“Being named in the IDC FinTech Rankings is a significant accomplishment, demonstrating a provider’s commitment to the success of its financial institution clients,” stated Marc DeCastro, Research Director at IDC Financial Insights. “The IDC Fintech Rankings, now in its 16th year, is the global standard list of fintech providers to the industry, and we congratulate the 2019 winners.” 

ICICI Bank UK PLC has announced the launch of a digital account opening facility that allows customers to open a personal current account instantly using the Bank’s mobile application. The first-of-its-kind service by an Indian bank in the United Kingdom (UK), it enables Non-Resident Indians (holding an Indian or British passport) and expatriate Indians (holding an Indian passport) and moving to the UK for work, to open a current account.

Customers simply need to download the Bank’s mobile application called ‘ICICI Bank UK iMobile’.  They do not need to visit a branch and know your customer (KYC) information is conducted electronically, enabling the account to be activated instantly which allows customers to start transacting immediately.

Customers will receive a contactless debit card at their correspondence address within a few days of opening the account, either in the UK or in India. They will also be able to remit money 24x7 instantly to any ICICI Bank account in India.

Speaking about the initiative, Mr. Loknath Mishra, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank UK PLC said, “ICICI Bank has always leveraged technology to pioneer digital innovations and provide a world-class banking experience to its customers. We have introduced the opening of a current account in a digital manner to further improve engagement with our customers. This unique proposition heralds a new era of opening an account within a few minutes, a marked improvement over opening a more traditional bank account which can take a number of days. We believe that ease of banking is a key parameter for individuals when they look for a banking partner. ICICI Bank remains committed to meeting customer banking needs in the UK as well as providing hassle free remittance services to India”.