Econocom UK & IRL, a leading provider of digital transformation solutions, has appointed Keith Richardson as its new Director of Corporate Relationships. The appointment is part of the company’s ongoing commitment to the UK and follows an eight per cent year-on-year revenue growth for the Econocom Group.

Richardson has more than 40 years’ experience of working in the retail and banking industries. Prior to joining Econocom, he ran Lloyds’ Retail Coverage Team as Managing Director for over 11 years, growing the business within his client base by more than tenfold. Keith joined Lloyds Bank in 2007, having spent the previous 28 years at Tesco PLC, creating its treasury team in the early 1980s and supporting its international expansion in central Europe and Asia. He also set up the Asia treasury operation in Hong Kong in 2000.

Richardson assumed his new role at Econocom in March 2019 and is reporting into the company’s Managing Director for UK & IRL, Chris Labrey.

Richardson says: “I’m thrilled to have joined Econocom UK at such a pivotal stage in its expansion. Increasingly, organisations are looking for flexible and intelligent ways to deliver digital transformation to both their customers and staff without using capital expenditure. Econocom’s as-a-service model provides an elegant way to deliver on this and help companies manage their assets more efficiently.”

Labrey says: “Keith is very highly respected within corporate and banking circles and we are delighted to welcome him to our UK team. Organisations are increasingly turning towards us as the finance provider of choice for their technology investments, but it’s critical that we keep our customers front-of-mind as we grow. Keith brings considerable experience and an invaluable understanding of the challenges that retail and banking organisations face and will play an essential role in supporting these relationships, ensuring we continue to drive value for our customers.”

Richardson’s appointment is the first of a number of strategic new hires for Econocom as the company seeks to double its sales team in response to growing demand for its services. Both Matthew Joseph and Oliver Watts joined the Econocom sales team this month to manage customer relationships and push the Econocom mobile-as-a-service solution to the market.

PPRO Group, with its co-founders, is pleased to announce the set-up of the European Third-Party Provider Association (ETPPA), a new entity that strengthens Third Party Providers’ (TPP) interests around the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2). The ETPPA formalises the existing Future of European Fintech (FoEF) coalition into an official non-profit TPP trade association.

The FoEF was originally created to unite forces in requesting changes to the European Banking Authority’s (EBA) first draft of the PSD2 Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) in February 2017, on the provisions governing strong customer authentication and secure communication between TPPs and banks, which was interpreting PSD2 very much against the interests of Fintechs in general, and jeopardising the business of TPPs in particular.

Several FoEF members represented the TPP interest at the European Commission’s API Evaluation Group and FoEF was also invited to take the vacant Payment Initiation Service Provider (PISP) seat at the ERPB (Euro Retail Payments Board - a high-level body chaired by the European Central Bank, gathering the supply and demand sides of European retail payments) as a guest until a formal representation has been established.

Ralf Ohlhausen, Executive Advisor at PPRO commented: “We are delighted to strengthen our position with the launch of the ETPPA, and we encourage all bank-independent TPPs and Fintechs with a significant interest in the PSD2 arena to join us, to bolster our efforts in supporting TPP interests vis-à-vis banks, as well as national and European authorities. 

“A crucial aspect of PSD2 is the abolition of the monopoly that banks have over accessing their customers’ account data. This will allow consumers to unlock their data and obtain a wide range of value-added services. It will strengthen the position of financial start-ups, as well as promote the development and use of innovative online and mobile payments and account information services.”

The ETPPA organisation has been setup lean and mean to make membership very affordable and divided into voting and non-voting members to allow different levels of engagement.

More information about the ETTPA can be found at www.etppa.org.

ieDigital was today shortlisted in two categories at the Credit Awards 2019. The categories are ‘Excellence in open banking’ and ‘Best rebrand’. The winners will be announced by host Jimmy Carr on 16 May at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel.

The Credit Awards, organised by Credit Strategy and sponsored by Experian, is the flagship event for the UK’s credit industry. The awards recognise and reward individuals, teams and organisations in UK risk, credit and collections, and ieDigital is shortlisted in two of its newest categories, described as:

Excellence in Open Banking – Open banking platform, lender or technology firm which has designed a solution, innovation or platform that either: opens up more services to consumers and businesses; allows easier access for third party providers; or enables increased compliance with regulations and a broadening of service offerings. The winning entry will recognise an innovation or excellence in open banking and PSD2.

Best Rebrand – Any organisation from any sector, including commissioning organisations, PR agencies and marketing consultancies. The winning entry will showcase a range of media to promote the rebrand. Mediums could include print, broadcast, online advertising, merchandising and other marketing offerings.

“This is a tremendous honour for us after many months of hard work and dedication by everyone at ieDigital,” said Jerry Young, CEO of ieDigital. “The Credit Awards 2019 have long recognised excellence in an increasingly competitive and fertile risk, credit and collections sector, and we are humbled by our nominations in these two new categories. We look forward to helping Credit Strategy celebrate its 20th anniversary in May, and, whatever the result for us as an organisation, will enjoy being a part of this exciting industry as it goes from strength to strength for many years to come.”

Open banking APIs for a better experience
In 2018, ieDigital integrated its Digital Debt Collection service, Interact Collect, with open banking APIs, enabling end users to automatically feed their transaction data into an Income & Expenditure review. This provided them with an instant summary of what they can afford to pay, and translated this into a debt repayment plan for each month. Initial reports were positive, with users saying the tool was “more motivational and educational, and less intrusive”.

The tool uses Interact’s API Gateway, which enables ieDigital’s clients to tap into the data that has been made available by registered open banking players.

The business case is impressive. For example, undertaking an Income & Expenditure review over the phone takes, on average, 40 minutes. By moving this online and integrating it with open banking APIs, ieDigital is driving a huge saving in contact centre time, and offering a vastly superior customer experience.

A successful company rebrand
ieDigital repositioned itself in a competitive financial software technology marketplace in 2018, creating a refreshed proposition, target market and overall vision. The company changed its name to ieDigital, which yielded immediate results for brand recall, and promoted its heritage as well as its cutting edge as a digital-first innovator. Since the rebrand, ieDigital’s organic search traffic increased threefold, and brand confidence improved across a website rebuild that included an increase in content production, as well as social media visibility and engagement.

Accuity, the leading provider of financial crime compliance, payments, and Know Your Customer (KYC) solutions, has announced its AI-driven account screening capability, ‘Firco Automated Alert Reduction’, which increases the level of accuracy in detecting and evaluating screening matches during the KYC process. It has also been optimised to integrate seamlessly with WorldCompliance™ data to expand its visibility into sanctions, politically exposed person (PEP) and adverse media lists, in support of compliance requirements.

This new module augments existing financial crime filters and alleviates a significant burden for organisations with large-scale compliance operations that rely heavily on human operators to review potential risks. Risks associated with customer accounts can include exposure to illicit financial activity, sanctioned entities, PEPs and reputationally exposed persons (REPs).

Existing matching technology compares customer data to the entities listed on regulatory watch lists, but until now, has not been sophisticated enough to eliminate the abundance of ‘false positive’ results produced, with the necessary level of accuracy. Manually assessing alerts to determine quality, potential risk, and whether further investigation is required, has been a significant drain on compliance resources and a contributor to the rising costs of compliance across the industry.

According to the recent Chartis Research Financial Crime Risk Management Systems: AML and Watchlist Monitoring report, “the success of an AML system is usually measured by the amount of time it saves and its reduction of false positives.”

Firco Automated Alert Reduction applies AI techniques to the hundreds of thousands of potential matches produced by a financial crime screening system. Its patented scoring methodology calculates the probability that a match is correct and evaluates how material the risk is to the business. The most relevant hits are flagged for immediate attention, based on the organisation’s individual risk appetite and compliance policy. Results are fed back into the screening cycle continuously, allowing the statistical model to adapt and become more intelligent as it gathers information.

Sophie Lagouanelle, Vice President of Financial Crime Screening at Accuity said, “Sifting through screening matches to detect the true risks can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Not only does our solution considerably reduce the size of that haystack to expose risks with unparalleled precision, but it also intelligently prioritises those risks according to the organisation’s compliance policy, so operators can be far more methodical in their approach to reviewing hits.”

Firco Automated Alert Reduction greatly improves the effectiveness of screening and provides significant efficiency gains to clients. It also records an electronic audit trail so screening results and the decision-making process can be shared easily with regulators. For instance, the NYDFS Part 504 rule means that for obliged entities, explainability is more important than ever. This regulation stipulates that financial institutions and payment service providers must be able to demonstrate their financial crime screening programme is fit for purpose, that they can control their software, and that the results of screening correspond to the organisation’s risk appetite.

The launch of Firco Automated Alert Reduction is a result of the acquisition of Safe Banking Systems (SBS) by Accuity in July 2018. It is now available to financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs) globally.

Rabo eBusiness - the world’s first bank-led Digital Identity Service Provider - a partnership between Rabobank, a financial institution, and Signicat, a leader in verified digital identity solutions has been recognised by Celent as the winner of the Model Bank award for Identity Management.

The Model Bank Award for Identity Management recognises the top technologies that are improving customer identity management and authentication. The winner of the award, Rabo eBusiness, gives banks, financial service providers, and any other multi-national business that needs to verify its customers’ identity, a singular service for identity authentication. It brings together Rabobank’s experience with large, multi-national enterprises, and Signicat’s digital identity technology.

KYC and AML regulations demand that financial service providers identify and authenticate their customers, while still delivering a convenient service. Rabo eBusiness is a single, cross-border method for digital on-boarding, login, signature and archiving that avoids a cumbersome UX for consumers and high manual costs for enterprises. This means consumers can use their existing digital IDs to use services and enterprises can roll-out a product across multiple markets using a single API.  Focused on energy, telecom and insurance companies, healthcare institutions and financial services providers, Rabo eBusiness has already saved its enterprise customers over €1.5m this year.

“The Celent Model Bank Awards are one of the most well-respected industry awards and we are excited that our work with Rabobank has been recognised by Celent,” said Gunnar Nordseth, CEO at Signicat. “As established financial institutions come under threat from challengers, existing services are fast becoming commodified and disintermediated. Conversely, consumers and businesses - in the age of password fatigue and hackers - need a new way to build mutual trust and ensure that the business is legitimate, and the customer is genuine. As trusted entities, banks are in pole position to take their brand equity, customer data, and position in the value chain to provide digital identity services to improve the speed, security and utility of commerce.”

“We’re grateful and proud to receive recognition for our work with this award,” said Nico Strauss, Chapter Lead, Shopping and eBusiness, Rabobank. “Moreover, it’s a confirmation for us that we’re on the right track and that we’re creating synergies together with Signicat in order to become more relevant for our customers in new lines of business. Authentication online is still a burden for most customers and companies. We are determined to turn this around and want to contribute to a safer and convenient way of identification for services.”

Celent’s annual Model Bank Awards recognise the best practices of technology usage in different areas critical to success in banking. Nominations are submitted by financial institutions and undergo a rigorous evaluation process by Celent analysts. Celent judges submissions on three core criteria: demonstrable business benefits of live initiatives; the degree of innovation relative to the industry; and the technology or implementation excellence.

“The Model Bank Awards recognise how banks are using technology to change the face of banking,” said Zilvinas Bareisis, Senior Analyst at Celent. “These banks should serve as an inspiration to others looking for strong examples of best practice implementation that will have a truly meaningful impact on business results and the industry overall. The entry from Rabobank ad Signicat clearly demonstrated this.”

Download  a case study detailing why Celent chose Rabo eBusiness here: https://resources.signicat.com/celent-model-bank-award

Refinitiv, one of the world’s largest providers of financial markets data and infrastructure, has introduced real-time coverage for the BRVM (Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières) for equity and fixed income markets.

The BRVM is the regional stock market for all eight member states in WAEMU (West African Economic and Monetary Union), including Benin, Burkino Faso, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo. The BRVM market cap is US$ 8.7 billion and saw US$ 4.1 billion of debt instruments issued in 2018.[1]

The enhancement allows Refinitiv’s customers to access real-time data from the BRVM in their own applications via the Elektron Data Platform or on the desktop via Eikon.

Commenting on the partnership, Dr. Edoh Kossi Amenounve, Chief Executive Officer of BRVM noted: “The launch of real-time coverage from Refinitiv for our member states will undoubtedly enhance BRVM’s market infrastructure and reduce friction for investors looking to participate in our market. This move towards real-time data and analytics coverage makes us globally competitive and cements the positions of our member states as attractive destinations for investments.”

Nadim Najjar, Managing Director for Middle East and Africa at Refinitiv said: “We are very excited to be leveraging the power of our global platform to improve access to data on this important and growing region. Real time coverage of the BRVM will help to connect global capital markets participants with regional opportunities to deepen market participation.”

Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, quantum computing and blockchain all have the potential to drive significant disruption in the next few years. Future-proofing cybersecurity against the risks of new technology, whilst taking advantage of the potential it offers, is central to the conference agenda at this year’s Infosecurity Europe, Europe’s number one information security event (4-6th June 2019 at Olympia, London). 

Every year, new technology trends come to the fore, and security is often an afterthought - the Internet of Things (IoT) is a prime example of this. Only now are we seeing organisations investing in the security of IoT, despite findings from Gartner last year that revealed nearly 20 per cent of organisations observed at least one IoT-based attack in the past three years. 

On the first day, Tuesday 4th June (15:15-16:15) Infosecurity Europe will bring together experts and thought leaders on the Keynote Stage to share knowledge of the latest tech developments and the potential impact on information security. They will examine if they are just hype, or if there is substance behind the claims that they will be transformational. The session will provide thoughts on how real the risks posed by these technologies are, along with practical guidance on how information security professionals should prepare for the next tech frontier. 

The discussion with both Tom Cignarella, Director, Security Coordination Center, Adobe, and Paul McKay, Moderator, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, will include lightening talks on The Rise of the Machines: AI, Machine Learning & Cybersecurity; Quantum Computing: The End of Encryption; and Blockchain & Crypto: Real Life Use Cases.

Paul McKay, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research commented: “I usually have two pieces of advice for businesses questioning how to deal with future technology. First is to task someone within your security team to be responsible for horizon scanning for future technologies and the impact that it could potentially have on your security program.  This is a vital part of any enterprise security architecture function. 

The second, is that the hype cycles and buzzwords abound in the industry lack credibility unless they are associated with very specific engineering use cases that show how that technology would be used in a practical situation. Without this specificity it's hard to take future technology and doomsayers seriously and you can largely dismiss it as marketing and hype generated to lighten your wallet and open up the organisation’s cheque book. If this specificity exists then you can start to have sensible discussions with the business on how you can help them use these technologies with security built in from the off-set.”

Technology is advancing at breakneck speed, and security needs to keep pace as the connected, intelligent and autonomous enterprise comes with an overwhelming cybersecurity risk. The number of enterprises implementing AI for instance, grew 270 per cent in the past four years and tripled in the past year, according to the Gartner’s 2019 CIO Survey. This growth comes as businesses recognise the need for digital transformation and the transformative technologies that ensue.

Victoria Windsor, Group Content Manager at Infosecurity Group, says: “Businesses need to build pervasive cyber resilience, incorporating cybersecurity into everything they do, across all tools, functions, people and processes, including any future tech deployments. Future proofing cybersecurity should be a priority for all organisations and they must plan for the risks that digital transformation poses. They must prioritise risks, and be prepared to mitigate against, and respond to, any new vulnerabilities and threats future technology brings with it.” 

Various theatres, including Tech Talks, Strategy Talks, Geek Street, Information Security Exchange and Technology Showcase, at this year’s event will incorporate future technology in its sessions, examples include:

• Keynote Stage – Shawn Scott, Head of Information Security, Thames Water - Tuesday 4th Jun: 16:30 - 17:25 Cyber-Physical Security: Cyber Risk Management Strategies for Connected OT & IT Networks
• Geek Street - David Edwards, Head of Information Security, Independent Researcher -Wednesday 5th Jun: 10:30 - 11:15 - Deep Dive: Using Artificial Intelligence to Impersonate a Human & Undertake Vishing Attacks
• Tech Talks – Nicola Whiting, Chief Strategy Officer, Titania - Tuesday 4^th Jun: 10:40 - 11:05 - AI: Past Failures, Current Capability & the Future of "Nation State" Defence
• Tech Talks – William Malik, VP Infrastructure Strategies, Trend Micro - Tuesday 6th Jun: 10:00 - 10:25 - Securing Smarter Cities: Practical Protocol & Policy 
  
  Infosecurity Europe, now in its 24th year, takes place at Olympia, Hammersmith, London, from 4-6 June 2019. It attracts over 19,500 unique information security professionals attending from every segment of the industry, including 400+ exhibitors showcasing their products and services, industry analysts, worldwide press and policy experts, and over 200 industry speakers are lined up to take part in the free-to-attend conference, seminar and workshop programme - https://www.infosecurityeurope.com

• Following the Post-Closing Acceptance Period, which ended yesterday, approximately 97.02% of Gemalto shares have now been tendered to the Thales offer
• Settlement of Shares tendered during the Post-Closing Acceptance Period will take place on 18 April 2019
• Thales will initiate the statutory buy-out proceedings as soon as possible in order to obtain 100% of the Shares
• Thales and Gemalto will ask Euronext to delist the Gemalto Shares shortly after Gemalto’s 2019 annual general meeting, to be held on 28 May 2019

Reference is made to the joint press release by Thales (Euronext Paris: HO) and Gemalto (Euronext Amsterdam and Paris: GTO) dated 29 March 2019 on the results of the recommended all-cash offer by Thales for all the issued and outstanding shares of Gemalto (the Offer) in which the Offer was declared unconditional and the Post-Closing Acceptance Period was announced. Terms not defined in this press release will have the meaning as set forth in the Offer Document.

Shares tendered

During the Post-Closing Acceptance Period, that expired at 17:40 (CET) yesterday, 10,742,274 Shares (including Shares represented by American depositary shares) have been tendered to the Offer, representing approximately 11.51% of the aggregate issued and outstanding share capital of Gemalto, and an aggregate value of approximately EUR 548 million (for an Offer Price of EUR 51.00 (cum dividend) in cash per Share).

Together with the 79,827,790 Shares already held by Thales following settlement of the Shares tendered during the Acceptance Period, Thales will, upon settlement of the Post-Closing Acceptance Period, hold 90,570,064 Shares, representing approximately 97.02% of the aggregate issued and outstanding share capital of Gemalto.

Settlement

Payment of the Offer Price (and the ADS Offer Price) for Shares (and ADS) tendered during the Post-Closing Acceptance Period will occur on 18 April 2019.

Buy-Out

Since Thales will own more than 95% of Gemalto shares, it will commence as soon as possible (i) a compulsory acquisition procedure (uitkoopprocedure) in accordance with article 2:92a or 2:201a of the DCC to buy out the Shareholders who have not tendered their Shares, and/or (ii) a takeover buy-out procedure in accordance with article 2:359c of the DCC to acquire the remaining Shares not held by Thales or Gemalto.

Delisting

Thales and Gemalto intend to procure the delisting of Gemalto Shares from Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Paris and terminate the listing agreement between Gemalto and Euronext. Gemalto also intends to terminate the Deposit Agreement effective as per the delisting of Gemalto Shares. These actions, which will be launched shortly after the annual general meeting of Gemalto, to be held on 28 May 2019, may adversely affect the liquidity and market value of any listed Shares not tendered. Reference is made to Section 6.13 (Liquidity and Delisting) and Section 6.14 (Termination of the ADS Deposit Agreement) of the Offer Document.

Announcements

Any further announcements in relation to the Offer will be issued by press release. Any joint press release issued by Thales and Gemalto will be made available on the websites of Thales (www.thalesgroup.com) and Gemalto (www.gemalto.com). Subject to any applicable requirements of the applicable rules and without limiting the manner in which Thales may choose to make any public announcement, Thales will have no obligation to make any public announcement other than as described above.

Over half (52%) of 18-27 year olds feel they’re more financially savvy than their generation is perceived to be – with 65% planning their finances and making provisions to save for the future, according to new research from leading payments provider Klarna.

But Klarna’s research — of 2,000 UK consumers aged 18-37 conducted independently via Censuswide — also shows there’s a lack of clear, accessible information about money management available to this generation. Faced with navigating the ‘information overload’ of financial products in the market, a significant proportion (69%) of this demographic think the terms and conditions of products are unclear, and two-thirds don’t know which sources to believe or trust.

And although young people are trying to spend and save responsibly, almost half (42%) of 18-27 year olds say they find it difficult to keep track of their outgoings and financial commitments. Budgeting and spending, saving for and buying a house and paying bills are revealed to be the top three areas young people wish they had more help with – and a quarter say they’d appreciate guidance on debt avoidance.

Sparking an honest conversation about money management  

As part of its mission to simplify payments and help people to be financially healthy, Klarna is launching its new initiative — Mindful Money, a digital content hub housing tried and tested tips and ideas from hand-picked third party contributors on managing money and spending responsibly.

Content on Mindful Money will be published under three ‘pillars’ of money management — Saving, Spending and Living. The opinions stated are not Klarna’s own, but belong to popular personal finance commentators and journalists. Money-making expert Money Magpie and leading journalist Daisy Buchanan are among the first wave of contributors.

Commenting on the initiative, Luke Griffiths, UK General Manager, Klarna, said: “It goes without saying that the financial security of our customers - no matter their age or circumstance - is very important to us. We all have a responsibility, especially to young people, to help them spend and save safely. We’re committed to being open and transparent about how our products and services work, and are always looking to find new ways to give our customers more choice and control in managing their finances - Mindful Money is born out of that mission.

Our research shows that 54% of Gen Z and millennials would like more sources of accessible, agenda-free information. At Klarna, we strongly believe talking about money should no longer be the last taboo – and in launching Mindful Money we aim to create a platform for an inspiring, informative conversation about money management. No preaching or jargon, just an open community for people to access helpful tips and ideas from our great range of contributors.”

Mindful Money contributor Laura Dempster, author of successful money saving blog Thrifty Londoner, said: “The importance of self-care is a hot topic at the moment, and caring for your finances should certainly fall under that category in order to maintain emotional well-being. Managing money doesn't get taught at school, which is why there’s a need for accessible, jargon-free information to be available to everyone.”

Explore Mindful Money at: https://www.klarna.com/uk/mindful-money/

For more information about Klarna’s corporate social responsibility programme, visit https://www.klarna.com/uk/csr

Would you like to become a contributor?

We’re excited to launch Mindful Money with an initial wave of content, but are looking out for the next team of great contributors to share their ideas and support the growth of the hub. If you think you have what it takes and would like to participate in this initiative, we’d love to hear from you.

Worldpay, Inc. (NYSE: WP; LSE: WPY), a global leader in payments, is predicting a rise in online bookings for airlines and travel agents in the UK in the build-up to this year’s Easter holiday period.

Analysis of spending in the three weeks leading up to 2018’s Easter Sunday found that online travel bookings rose by 35 percent compared to the previous year[1]. This trend could be set to continue for both airlines and online travel agents in the coming weeks, as Brits look to get away over the long weekend.

According to Worldpay, UK travellers are booking tickets with airlines around three weeks in advance. Data shows that booking volumes slow by six percent in the week leading up to the Easter bank holiday weekend when compared to the previous two weeks, indicating travellers’ preference for planning rather than trying their luck with last-minute bargains.

Worldpay data revealed that the volume of airline bookings increased by 40 percent last year, as budget conscious travellers made the most of increased competition[2] by building their own DIY Easter holiday, with the average booking cost falling by 12 percent year-over-year.

Online travel agents also saw similar increases ahead of the Easter period with booking volumes rising by 37 percent, and the average value of bookings jumping by 25 percent year-over-year. This could indicate a growing trend for travellers turning to online travel agents to book complete package experiences over designing their own trips.

Commenting on the data, Thomas Helldorff, Vice President for Airlines & Travel, Global Enterprise eCommerce at Worldpay said:

“The travel industry has seen a real shift in how holidaymakers research and book their holidays. Mobile is the fastest growing commerce channel in the UK[3], as travellers use smartphones to browse prices, book holidays and ancillary services throughout their trip.

“If travel operators want to stay ahead of the curve, they must optimize the booking experience, embedding seamless and secure payments across all major channels – making it even easier for their customers to book and pay wherever they are.”