BitGo, Inc., the market leader in institutional cryptocurrency financial services, today announced that it has partnered with Genesis Global Trading, an industry pioneer and leader in over-the-counter digital currency trading, to provide clients with the ability to trade digital assets directly from BitGo custody. 

BitPay, the largest global blockchain payments provider, today announced another record year along with key accomplishments and expansion of the payment processing platform for 2018 after more than seven years in business.

NovoServe, a venture capital backed Infrastructure-as-a-Service hosting provider with company-owned data centers focused on delivering custom-engineered IaaS hosting solutions including dedicated servers and virtual servers to customers worldwide, has established a 40GE port connection to the Asteroid Internet Exchange Point (IXP). It means that NovoServe’s current peering/interconnection capacity at the Asteroid IXP Platform for its cross-border network backbone in the Netherlands and Germany will quadruple to meet its coming expansion needs. NovoServe is already eying 100GE to follow its planned IaaS hosting network restructuring in Q1 2019 and expected bandwidth volume growth this year.
 
The Asteroid IXP offers a fully automated, secured interconnection platform were some of the largest carriers, ISPs, hosting companies, CDNs and content providers globally are coming together to exchange traffic from The “smart” engineering design of Asteroid’s Internet Exchange Point in Amsterdam provides its users with a full-featured, highly automated and scalable network peering system.
 
NovoServe’s cross-border network backbone in the Netherlands and Germany offers a bandwidth mix composed of IP Transit and peering through Tier-1 carriers and IXPs. With two company-owned data centers in the Netherlands, 6 network Points-of-Presence (PoPs) established in two interconnected rings between Amsterdam and Frankfurt, as well as peering connections already available through other Dutch IXPs, NovoServe’s network architecture is designed to create optimal routing paths for their IaaS hosting solutions.
 
The connection to the Asteroid IXP Platform provides NovoServe with efficient interconnection and enhanced routing options to minimize latency while reinforcing network security, redundancy and speed. By upgrading their peering/interconnection capacity from 10GE to 40GE port capacity, NovoServe will be able to meet the requirements of increasing network traffic within NovoServe’s European network ecosystem.
 
“We’re pleased to see NovoServe establish a significant upgrade and enhanced connection to our highly automated IXP, following their impressive bandwidth volume growth lately. NovoServe’s European network backbone and bandwidth volume backed by their own data centers is adding great interconnection and efficiency opportunities to the other peering partners present on the Asteroid IXP platform,” said Remco van Mook, CEO of Asteroid. “As a VC-backed IaaS hosting company with significant network growth lately, we expect NovoServe to further contribute greatly to our fast-expanding ecosystem of partners, also with regards to their planned further international growth in the years to come.”
 
Online gaming, CSPs, Streaming
 
“Asteroid delivers highly efficient, cost-effective and simple-to-deploy local network interconnection,” said Herke Plantenga, co-founder and CEO of NovoServe. “They put lots of engineering effort into the design of this IXP and have shown that they are clearly ahead of the curve in understanding Internet interconnection with their nimble, efficient model. Built on the latest technologies, their platform provides a disruptive technology design, where network peers are just one simple click away for us, resulting in a highly automated peering.”
 
Now that NovoServe has upgraded from 10GE to a 40GE connection at the Asteroid IXP platform, the company is already eying a 100GE connection as it expects fast IaaS hosting network growth and expanded latency-reduction requirements during 2019.
 
“The connection of our data centers and network to the Asteroid Internet Exchange Point in Amsterdam provides our customers with a faster, and more robust network infrastructure, improved network performance, and expanded network routing options,” added Mr. Plantenga. “Especially our clients with latency-sensitive applications including online gaming companies, Cloud Service Providers and SaaS application providers will benefit from adding the Asteroid IXP platform to our network ecosystem. It gives them reduced latency and enhanced security guarantees. The capacity upgrade to 40GE meets our current network growth and bandwidth volume requirements. As we have planned to re-architect our Germany/Netherlands cross-border network backbone in Q1 2019 to support further network growth and geographically expanded latency-reduction, we are already contemplating a 100GE port capacity upgrade.”

Data science specialist HAL24K has been chosen as one of only nine participants in the Microsoft ScaleUp Program.

Formerly known as Microsoft Accelerator, the ScaleUp Program is designed to fuel the growth of a select number of innovative, enterprise-ready companies, by providing access to sales, marketing and technology.

HAL24LK was chosen on as Microsoft recognized that with the right support and access to top Microsoft partners and customers, the company has the potential to accelerate its growth and scale up globally. To be selected, the company also had to meet strict selection criteria, including that start-ups are ready for a Series A round of venture capital financing.

HAL24K has distinguished itself in the marketplace as it offers not just leading machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that solve complex infrastructural problems, but an end-to-end data science platform which can power data intelligence for its clients.

Dimension, HAL24K’s SaaS platform, brings the benefits of machine learning and AI to the entire organization. It offers data science components which integrate, analyze and model historical and real-time data streams, and can build solutions which can be deployed directly into operations. This makes it a comprehensive data intelligence solution, able to integrate production-quality apps into existing business systems.

HAL24K’s strong offering has enabled it to quickly establish and grow a customer base which includes local and government authorities as well as commercial organizations in the domains of water, traffic, fleet and asset management. By participating in the Microsoft ScaleUp Program, it will now have access to a large number of potential new customers, including organizations in the Fortune 500. It will also benefit from extensive technical support and contacts with Microsoft Azure experts.

"We are proud to have won a place on Microsoft's prestigious ScaleUp Program," said Jerome Mol, CEO of HAL24K, "and for the company to be identified as an innovation driver.

“This is a credit to our business model and strategy for growth, and it is fantastic that one of the world’s foremost technology companies recognizes that Dimension has the potential to make a global impact in the field of data science and smart infrastructure.

“Being part of the program will allow us to scale even faster."

New York City is one of the most visited cities in the world, delivering unrivaled experiences and events across culinary, theatre, music, sports, arts and more. In a move to enable people to further experience all this unique city has to offer, NYC & Company and Mastercard today announced a new global, multi-year partnership.

From NYC & Company’s iconic programs including NYC Restaurant Week®, NYC Broadway Week and NYC Must-See Week to its other citywide initiatives, the two will collaborate to bring all that is Priceless about NYC to life. In addition, Mastercard will also become the preferred payment technology partner of NYC & Company and will be integrated into the organization’s global tourism promotional efforts.

Ranked consistently as one of the top cities for both travel and dining by Mastercard’s Global Destination Cities Index, New York City offers unique opportunities to both travelers and residents. Mastercard has always been deeply engaged in the growth and well-being of the city – whether through curated experiences for cardholders through Priceless Cities, identifying and solving urban challenges through City Possible, or by innovating and establishing its first Tech Hub in NYC.

Market and traveler insights from Mastercard will help NYC & Company’s business-to-business partners more effectively communicate the dynamic city to audiences around the world. Local businesses could also benefit from Mastercard’s support of NYC & Company’s successful Tourism Ready efforts, which trains emerging businesses big and small throughout the five boroughs to become better equipped to benefit from tourism.

The partnership comes as NYC & Company releases its 2018 year-end tourism figures. Last year, the City welcomed a record 65.2 million visitors, comprising 51.6 million domestic visitors and 13.5 million international visitors. 2018 represented the ninth consecutive year of tourism growth. A record 37.7 million hotel room nights were sold citywide in 2018, generating $623 million in estimated hotel occupancy tax revenues.  The top five international markets for 2018 NYC visitation were: UK (1.24 million); China (1.1 million); Canada (1 million); Brazil (920,000); and France (807,000).

“This record breaking year of tourism proves what every New Yorker knows:  this is the greatest City in the world to live in and visit. New York City embodies true American values. We embrace diversity and are welcoming to all, and the more than 65 million visitors to our city were able to experience that first hand,” said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“While celebrating a new tourism milestone, it is an exciting moment to announce our new partnership with Mastercard, an iconic and innovative global brand, elevating our efforts to attract a broader worldwide audience to experience New York City’s unparalleled offerings,” said NYC & Company president and CEO Fred Dixon. “Through this unprecedented marketing collaboration with Mastercard, we will reach more consumers directly to grow overnight stays and expand neighborhood exploration across the five boroughs while also supporting small business development, continued job growth and opportunities for New Yorkers.”

“Experience lies at the heart of New York City and we are thrilled to partner with NYC & Company to support one of the world’s most visited cities while also giving our cardholders Priceless opportunities to experience it in new and meaningful ways,” said Cheryl Guerin, executive vice president of North America Marketing & Communications at Mastercard. “Together with this expanded relationship, we can further our local economic development efforts to continue to ensure New York City remains a must-visit destination.”

NYC & Company is predicting more than 67 million visitors will visit New York City in 2019, a “monumental year” with many large-scale openings and the City hosting WorldPride, the first time the celebrated event will be held in the United States.

New York City’s travel and tourism sector currently supports 9 percent of payroll employment— 391,000 employees—and generates approximately $66 billion in annual economic impact (based on 2017 data).

“We are proud to join forces with Mastercard on this significant partnership to strengthen New York City’s global reach around the world,” said Emily Rafferty, chairman of NYC & Company. “This new collaboration along with the City’s ninth consecutive year of tourism growth inaugurates our monumental year.”

NYC Restaurant Week, NYC Broadway Week and NYC Must-See Week are all part of NYC & Company’s new NYC Winter Outing initiative, a bundle of offers that encourages visitors and locals to enjoy the City’s restaurants, theaters, museums, attractions and performing arts from Jan. 21 – Feb. 10. More information can be found at nycgo.com/nycwinterouting.

As part of this partnership, Mastercard cardholders will get unique NYC Priceless experiences around key passion areas, have exclusive access, pre-sale opportunities and ongoing discounts at many merchants during iconic NYC & Company programs to make NYC Priceless year-round.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) and the People of the State of New York today settled claims against Sterling Jewelers Inc.

The Bureau’s and the State’s parallel investigations found that Sterling violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 by opening store credit-card accounts without customer consent; enrolling customers in payment-protection insurance without their consent; and misrepresenting to consumers the financing terms associated with the credit-card accounts. The Bureau also found that Sterling violated the Truth in Lending Act by signing customers up for credit-card accounts without having received an oral or written request or application from them. The State of New York found that Sterling violated several provisions of state law. 

Under the settlement, Sterling will pay a $10 million civil money penalty to the Bureau and a $1 million civil money penalty to the State of New York. Sterling has also agreed to injunctive relief designed to prevent the continuation of the claimed illegal conduct.

Sterling is headquartered in Akron, Ohio, and does business throughout the United States. Sterling operates over 1,500 jewelry stores under several names, including Kay Jewelers, Jared The Galleria of Jewelry, JB Robinson Jewelers, Marks & Morgan Jewelers, Belden Jewelers, Goodman Jewelers, LeRoy’s Jewelers, Osterman Jewelers, Rogers Jewelers, Shaw’s Jewelers, and Weisfield Jewelers. Sterling is a wholly owned subsidiary of Signet Jewelers Limited, the largest specialty-jewelry retailer in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Copies of the complaint and the proposed consent order filed in federal district court in the Southern District of New York are available at: https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/bcfp_sterling-jewelers_complaint.pdf  and https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/bcfp_sterling-jewelers_proposed-consent-order.pdf  

A vast majority of businesses will increase their investments in digital technology over the coming year, and many expect IT modernisation to fuel future transformation efforts that lead to cost savings and greater profitability. These are some of the findings from a new global survey conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and commissioned by DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC), the world’s leading independent, end-to-end IT services company.

The study, “2019: The Year of Digital Decisions,” explores how companies define digital transformation and the resulting business outcomes. Significantly, the report reveals that more than eight in ten survey respondents (83 percent) expect their organisations to increase their digital investments in 2019. And more than 40 percent of respondents predict that their organisations will increase their investments by 11 percent or more.

Currently, approximately half of companies surveyed have digitally enabled just three key organisational functions, according to the research. When asked to cite the top barriers to transformation, more than one-third (35 percent) of respondents flagged “cost or lack of funding,” second only to security concerns (40 percent).

However, most companies surveyed (76 percent) expect the cost savings from IT services modernisation to help fund their digital strategy. Within the next three years, companies intend to greatly ramp up their efforts, and more than half of respondents (58 percent) expect every business unit to be digitally enabled in the next three years.  

“Companies overwhelmingly recognise that digital innovation is now a requirement for them to compete and succeed,” said Dan Hushon, senior vice president and chief technology officer, DXC Technology. “The survey findings point to perhaps the most rapid, dramatic and sophisticated effort at reinvention that major businesses have attempted in many decades, and those surveyed are committed to investing to make digital happen.”

Survey respondents also linked digital transformation to profits. More than two-thirds (68 percent) say the annual profitability of their organisations has increased over the past three years thanks to their organisations’ digital strategy, and 74 percent say they expect it to rise over the next three years.

“We strongly believe that we can make the customer experience easier and simpler while leading to better outcomes through digital technology, and that will continue to drive our market share,” said survey report interviewee Neesha Hathi, executive vice president and chief digital officer at Charles Schwab. “Digital transformation also helps us scale our services while driving down costs for our clients.”

Digital decision drivers

The report reveals what companies aim to achieve by digitally remaking themselves, as well as the challenges they must overcome and the cultural changes they need to make. Other key findings include: 

• Digital and business strategy formulation are completely or almost completely aligned at 72 percent of companies.
• Three-fourths (75 percent) of respondents say digital transformation will lead to greater agility, and 76 percent report that modern digital IT infrastructures better position their companies to produce value for their stakeholders.
• Approximately one-third (33 percent) of respondents say the lack of a tech-savvy workforce is a barrier to transformation.
• Nearly three-fourths (72 percent) of companies agree that a change in culture is necessary to digitally transform any organisation. That figure is even higher for companies in developing regions and those that have implemented digital strategies only in the past two years.

“Our research indicates that digital strategy will continue to be a major area of investment – amounting to a dramatic effort at corporate reinvention. But getting it right will be a continuingchallenge,” said Gilda Stahl, managing editor, thought leadership, at The Economist Intelligence Unit. “Defining your digital strategy clearly, ensuring digital literacy in every relevant role and recruiting digital-savvy employees are all essential to guaranteeing that digital investment yields positive business outcomes.”

Key regional and industry trends

• Companies that are further advanced – for example, those headquartered in North America and Europe and those in the financial services and manufacturing industries – tend to place greater emphasis on cross-functional collaboration, possibly because this helps them to optimise the digital investments they’ve already made.
• Financial services companies are more likely to stress AI/machine learning and blockchain while, for manufacturing companies, cloud computing and IoT are especially important.
• Social media is a somewhat higher priority for retailers than for other industries, given the importance to them of developing digital channels for sales and marketing. These tools play a growing role at marketing and communications firms as well.

Methodology

The Economist Intelligence Unit surveyed 621 senior executives in September and October 2018 to discover where companies are in their digital development and what they want to achieve with digital transformation. Respondents were members of the C-suite or held other senior leadership roles, including executive vice presidents, managing directors, and directors. Companies surveyed ranged in size from US$500 million to US$5 billion or more in annual revenue. Respondents were widely distributed across functions and industries — healthcare, manufacturing, retail and insurance are the biggest sectors represented.

As part of the ongoing expansion of its banking and payments security and consultancy offering, FIME has confirmed the appointments of Arnaud Crouzet and Edouard Baroin.

“Banking and retail are experiencing unprecedented change and, while the digitalization of payments represents significant opportunities, each stakeholder must overcome a range of challenges,” comments Lionel Grosclaude, CEO at FIME. “Banks must balance the need to transform their strategies and infrastructures for long-term success, while ensuring short-term revenue growth. Retailers and merchants need to make increasingly complex strategic decisions to reduce costs and increase revenues in today’s omnichannel world, but with margins constantly squeezed, it is difficult to know where to focus resources.”

New talents bringing new strategic support to banks & retailers

Arnaud will head up FIME’s security and consultancy offerings, helping banks and merchants to secure, automate and digitize payments while improving the buying experience. For the last eight years he has been in charge of payments strategy at Auchan Group, the world’s 11th largest food retailer. He is also General Secretary of nexo standards, the association dedicated to delivering fast, interoperable and borderless card payment acceptance, and previously worked for American Express Group and Ingenico. Arnaud holds a degree in telecom engineering from EPITA and an executive MBA in business strategy and management from CNAM Paris.

“This is an extremely exciting time to join FIME,” adds Arnaud. “Regulations, standards and new technologies are changing the game, and key stakeholders are completely reevaluating their roles in the payments ecosystem. FIME is perfectly placed to support banks and merchants throughout every stage of their digital transformation projects. Our consultants, engineers and testing experts are removing pain and friction from payments and helping our customers to deliver richer, more secure omnichannel buying experiences. I look forward to collaborating with my new colleagues.”

Edouard Baroin joins FIME to support banks, merchants and other payment ecosystem stakeholders to define and launch the best solutions for their customers and their business models. He brings extensive consultancy experience to FIME, having led teams at Deloitte, Beobank and Eurogroup Consulting. He holds a degree in mathematical sciences and an MBA in corporate finance.

“We enable our customers to innovate in a secure and sustainable way. Testing and compliance are therefore essential, but on many projects we are helping to define the future of payments and standards are yet to catch up. This is where our expertise and consultancy comes in,” concludes Lionel. “The arrival of Arnaud and Edouard is another step towards excellence as we revolutionize our consultancy offering and app security testing methodologies. We have some important new services to launch this year to help our customers define, design, develop, validate and launch new products and services, so please join me in welcoming Arnaud and Edouard to help us achieve our ambitious goals.”

FIME supports every phase of the digital transformation process by navigating regulatory challenges, reducing risk and complexity, upgrading legacy systems, and ensuring security and interoperability. 

NGA Human Resources, the global HR and payroll services company, has announced a partnership with Gospel Technology, who were recently recognised as Salesforce Ventures first global investment in blockchain technology.

NGA HR’s products and services innovation team has been piloting Gospel Technology’s Enterprise Secure Data Platform, with a view to integrating this into its architecture to further strengthen its chain of data trust. This first project, which will continue to run until March, enables the proof-of-value (PoV) to be established by NGA HR, with the potential to add the platform as the unprecedented infrastructure layer of data access and security to NGA HR’s BPO payroll services.

“The greatest risk to any business is a data breach. Failure to protect PII can literally ruin an organisation’s reputation overnight. It’s for this reason that we’ve spent the past year looking at the potential integration of blockchain and other technologies into our own processes, and into our BPO HR and payroll services. It’s absolutely key to our business that we can give our clients and employees the assurance that their data is secured and accessible in the most trusted environment possible,” explained Andy Monshaw, CEO of NGA Human Resources.

The trust layer architected within the Gospel Technology solution will address the requirements of a growing number of organisations already stipulating unlimited liability for data breaches from data controllers and processors in their supply chains. Andy Monshaw CEO of NGA Human Resources, predicts this requirement will steadily rise in 2019.

In July 2018, Ponemon Institute LLC published an update to their ‘Cost of a Data Breach Study’, highlighting continual growth in the costs associated with data breach incidents. Respondents to the study are incurring an average cost of $3.86 million per breach, coupled with a 27.9% likelihood of a recurring material breach over the next two years.

Aligned to these figures the 2018 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), identified that the top asset (Database) and compromised data type (Personal) are the clear targets for cyber actors. These points clearly reinforce Andy’s requirement to provide a secure and trusted data environment.

Built using their own distributed ledger (blockchain) technology, the Gospel Technology Enterprise Secure Data Platform ensures contextual access to Personal Identifiable Information (PII). Data can only be accessed by people authorised to view it, and only in the

context of the relevant fields of information required to complete a process. This is proven to increase service efficiencies and reduce the possibility of human error. NGA HR is also looking at how this can enhance the experience of employees, in particularly those in heavy volume data processing roles, such as help desks and call centers.

“We are really excited by this partnership with NGA HR and believe the results will demonstrate the business efficiencies, operating cost reductions and future proofing that the Gospel Technology solution brings to the business world. This partnership moves blockchain into enterprise use and demonstrates the real-world capability of the technology across differing vertical markets and use cases. 

“In the NGA HR pilot, we’ve proved as a partnership that using Gospel Technology to manage data correctly and contextually enables simplification and enforcement of data security, privacy and ethical handling in line with modern regulations and customer expectations. Controlling data access through granular transactions, based on agreed consensus builds trust into every business process. Our work together will mitigate data breach incidents, minimising costs and any associated reputational damage - particularly relevant in light of the current wave of the misappropriate handling and use of personal data,” explained Ian Smith, CEO, Gospel Technology. 

“In keeping with our business model to partner with only best-of-breed solutions, we’ve partnered with Gospel Technology. Together, we’re innovating to meet the demands and expectations of security conscious clients now, and in the future. In the pilot so far, we have established a level of data trust that is game changing for any enterprise services business, let alone payroll service. This is a hugely exciting development for our clients, and we hope to commercialize the innovation in the near future,” continued Andy Monshaw.

“The architectures of today are no longer fit for purpose, as regular high-profile security breaches demonstrate. At Gospel Technology, our vision is to secure key enterprise and personal data to build a future where trusted data collaboration and inter-enterprise data governance is the norm and we can see a huge opportunity for NGA HR as an employer, and as a controller and processor of data,” concluded Ian Smith.