The Tezos Foundation is expanding its leadership team. Attorney at Law Ulrich Sauter, an experienced expert for financial products, fintech, corporate governance and compliance, has been appointed as General Counsel of the Tezos Foundation. Additionally, Eelco Fiole, investment executive and adjunct professor for finance ethics, has joined as Chief Financial Officer. Blockchain and tech entrepreneur Lily Liu has joined as an advisor to the board of the Foundation. With their combined experience and expertise, they boost the capabilities of the Tezos Foundation.

After the successful launch of the main net last year, the Tezos Foundation is continually focused on how it can best support the further development of its third generation blockchain protocol and its ecosystem. With the appointment of two senior executives, the Foundation is taking an important step forward by strengthening its internal expertise and capabilities. We look forward to having Ulrich Sauter, Eelco Fiole and Lily Liu working with the Foundation and bringing crucial governance, financial and industry specific experience,” says Ryan Jesperson, President of the Tezos Foundation.

Ulrich Sauter has more than 20 years of professional experience in the financial and legal industry. Before joining Zurich based law firm Naegeli & Partners Attorneys at Law Ltd. as counsel, he worked as general counsel and member of the executive committee for Leonteq. His international work experience and his focus on governance and compliance will bring valuable insight to the Tezos Foundation. 

Eelco Fiole is co-founder and sole managing partner of Alpha Governance Partners, an international risk-governance focused fiduciary services firm. With 25 years in the financial services industry, he gained almost a decade of fiduciary COO- and CFO-experience in alternative investments, wealth management and blockchain and will help to further develop the Tezos Foundation’s strategy around governance and risk diversification. Fiole is an Adjunct Professor in Finance Ethics at the University of Lausanne. He states: “Observing the increasing maturity and institutionalization in the blockchain space, Tezos is excellently positioned to be a leading model for robust governance, supporting cutting-edge technological development and protocol adoption globally”.

Lily Liu has joined as advisor to the board of the Tezos Foundation already in November last year. Lily has an extensive background in private equity and in the blockchain space. She is co-founder of blockchain startup Earn.com, acquired by Coinbase in 2018, and will work closely with the Tezos foundation board and advise on ecosystem development and strategy.

Tezos is a self-amending smart contract blockchain protocol that successfully launched in the summer of 2018. It has a strong global community that is growing rapidly. The Swiss based Tezos Foundation supports the long-term success of the Tezos protocol and ecosystem. By funding initiatives from scientists, researchers, developers, entrepreneurs and enthusiasts, the Foundation encourages decentralized development and robust participation.

Elavon, a global payments provider and subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, has acquired CenPOS, a Miami-based company offering integrated payment software solutions to large enterprises.

Colt Technology Services has today announced the launch of Colt Intelligent Communications – an enterprise solution integrating the power of Microsoft’s cloud productivity applications with Colt’s voice and data networks to deliver end-to-end performance, security and reliability for a unique one-stop IT capability. 

Through a customisable combination of Colt’s SIP trunking services, premium internet or cloud access as well as Microsoft’s Office 365 product offerings including Teams, Colt can provide businesses with a superior communications solution that will drive productivity and collaboration.

Applications are delivered on Microsoft’s flagship Office 365 cloud-based platform, ensuring a familiar desktop experience as well as providing an immersive collaborative experience with Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business. With Colt Intelligent Communications, organisations can benefit from lower administration costs and the simplicity of utilising one provider for desktop, voice, connectivity, collaboration and professional services. Organisations will also be able to select the components they need, packaging them together in one seamless experience, which also encompasses end-to-end support. This offering will be delivered in collaboration with Ingram Micro Cloud and its CloudBlue division, which by leveraging its high-performance commerce platform, Colt can align its support, delivery, and provisioning standards for all their customers regardless of physical location, or vertical.

Colt is already a key connectivity partner to Microsoft’s Azure Express Route providing high-quality access to the cloud, and with this new solution will deliver a best-in-class telephony experience thanks to Direct Routing with Microsoft Teams. As well as connecting to Microsoft’s cloud, the Colt IQ Network connects to more than 850 data centres globally, as well as more than 27,500 buildings via its fibre footprint.  

“The way business is done has dramatically changed. Colt’s extended partnership with Microsoft ensures our customers have everything they need at their disposal to power their digital transformations and next wave of business growth,” says Rajiv Datta, Chief Operating Officer at Colt.  

“At Colt, we have a 26-year track record of being a business voice provider with a wholly-owned, globally connected network ensuring high bandwidth access to the cloud. This extended partnership with Microsoft further fuels businesses ability to collaborate and innovate – a mission that has long been at Colt’s core.”

Speaking about Colt’s and Ingram Micro’s partnership, Vice President EMEA for CloudBlue, Isidoro Porquicho said: “We are delighted to be working with Colt on a transformational Cloud and Unified Communications project. Our strong Microsoft CSP know-how, combined with our pan-European Cloud Marketplace, CloudBlue platform and Support Services, provide Colt with the scale to fulfil the ambitions of its Colt Intelligent Communications Service.”

Colt’s Intelligent Communications proposition will be available in 13 countries across Europe, giving businesses the support they require as they bring all their communications offerings together with one provider. 

Katallassos, a new standard framework for originating and issuing financial instruments and financial services, has today been announced as the flagship project of Trinkler Software, a company founded be Reto Trinkler - Cofounder of Melonport, a board member of the Web3 Foundation, and Forbes 30 under 30 in 2018.  The Katallassos project builds on top of the ACTUS standard, a modeling paradigm in which standardized Contract Types (CTs) are the granular building blocks of the financial world.  ACTUS aims to raise this standardization to a universal and global level. Katallassos focuses on derivatives as they are the largest class of financial products in the world with an estimated global market value between $544 trillion to $1.2 quadrillion.

Derivatives are financial contracts between two or more parties that derives their  value based upon an underlying financial asset, set of assets, or entity. These underlying instruments can be anything from securities to commodities to stocks to interest rates and the derivative contract can represent anything from futures contracts, stock options, forward contracts, swaps, and more.

Currently, in the centralized banking world, derivative financial instruments  are handled by custodians and executed in a centralised setting, requiring inherent trust of the party or institution facilitating the contract.  The option of decentralised and non-custodial execution of derivatives within the context of a standard on a blockchain network has clear and concise advantages for all parties involved in the transaction, including:

• Access to any financial service from a single account.
• No waiting time for bank transfers between accounts and brokerages / exchanges.
• The automated execution of financial contracts.
• A continuous real-time synchronized single golden source of truth for all secondary market analytics and reporting.  Meaning the next housing bubble could be prevented due to better macro economic oversight.

The Katallassos project will be a community-based initiative that will integrate with many existing blockchain applications and projects as well as traditional banking infrastructure to truly leverage the perfect functionality of blockchain for derivatives. For developers, Katallassos will handle everything on the backend while enabling access to a full suite of financial products, services, and users that are integrated with the system and interact using the universal ACTUS standard.

From the POV of the developer: no need to worry about the backend, Katallassos deals with everything. And, in the future, access to the entire network/ecosystem. That means all the users and a host of other service providers to help you run your business.

“Our goal with Katallassos is to create a specialised blockchain that will act like a bridge between the traditional financial system and the decentralised world, allowing them to easily interact with one another,” said Reto Trinkler, Founder and CEO of Trinkler Software AG. “To do this we are taking a tried and true financial contract classification standard and are creating tooling for it as well as a decentralized execution environment around it.”

The name ‘Katallassos’ is derived from the word ‘catallactics’, a term first coined by Austrian Economist Ludwig Von Mises. It is an economic theory that quantifies the scope of economics using human action as a metric for measuring an economy's state. The greater the amount of action or participation, the healthier the state of the economy. Trinkler Software chose to build tools for a catallactic society to help contribute to a healthier economy.

Following the announcement on 21 December 2018 by Cevian Capital of their approximately 2.3 per cent holding in Nordea Bank Abp, the Nomination Board has today at their meeting approved Cevian Capital’s request to join the Nomination Board and appointed Christer Gardell as an additional member to the Nomination Board. 

The Nomination Board will continue its work and expects to finalise its tasks by February 2019, in time to be included in the proposals in the notice of the Annual General Meeting. 

The members of the Nomination Board are:

Kari Stadigh, Group CEO and President of Sampo plc and Chairman of the Nomination Board
Mogens Hugo, appointed by Nordea-fonden
Hans Sterte, Head of Investment Management at Alecta 
Risto Murto, President and CEO of Varma
Björn Wahlroos, Chairman of the Board of Directors
Christer Gardell, Managing Partner and co-founder, Cevian Capital AB

The Annual General Meeting will be held on Thursday 28 March 2019 in Helsinki.

For further information:
Kari Stadigh, +358 10 516 0004 

The ultimate moment of shopping truth happens when we tap, dip, swipe or click and wait for approval. Nobody wants a decline—especially not a false one and especially not a false decline due to security measures put in place to protect you. This is scenario is more troubling to us than fraud losses. Because, when that happens, people don’t just abandon their cart—they often stop using their card altogether. In 2017 alone, false declines for payment card transactions account for US$303 billion in lost revenue in the U.S.¹ 

As in-store purchasing has become more secure, fraud has been creeping up online. Why? Because identity verification is a top challenge for both issuers and merchants. In fact, 50 percent of global login traffic is at high risk for potential account takeover or credential misuse.² And consumers are frustrated when they don’t have the same seamless, secure experience at every interaction. The industry is now at a point where we have information and technology available to tackle that frustration head on – EMV 3D-Secure 2.0. It’s a complicated name to describe something simple – a new industry standard used to check a consumer’s identity on digital payment transactions.

With the rollout of EMV 3D-Secure, Mastercard has created a program called Mastercard Identity Check. The program provides merchants and their banks an easy way to upgrade and enhance current security solutions to determine potential risks and ensure genuine transactions are approved in a seamless manner. Using Identity Check’s AI and machine learning, EMV 3D-Secure can now take into account over 150 different variables of a transaction to help the issuer make a more accurate, insight-based decision whether to approve a transaction or decline it.

These variables include such factors as screen brightness, device owner gestures and, shopping purchase history. They are used alongside insights from the merchant and issuer to authenticate a payment. In cases where additional authentication is needed to protect the buyer, it can be provided through the use of biometrics or a one-time password. Essentially, we’re providing another, more seamless way to prove you are you. The best part? It all happens in a blink—in that short moment of truth before a consumer sees the word “Approved”.

Delivering practical security solutions in an effortless and imperceptible fashion is critical in creating trust between people and retailers. As is fitting for today’s digital economy, the new standard enables a consistent user experience across connected devices, in-app or on a browser. When merchants and issuers have greater confidence in the consumer’s identity, approvals increase on average 11 percent which means fewer false declines, happy merchants and recurring shoppers–not to mention a simpler shopping experience for us all.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) today published a report under section 1022(d) of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) assessing the effectiveness of the Bureau’s Ability to Repay and Qualified Mortgage Rule and a separate report assessing the effectiveness of the Bureau’s mortgage servicing rule issued under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA).

The Bureau issued the Ability to Repay and Qualified Mortgage Rule in January 2013 to implement provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act that require lenders, before making a residential mortgage loan, to make a reasonable and good faith determination based on verified and documented information that the consumer has a reasonable ability to repay the loan. The rule took effect in January 2014. 

The Bureau also issued the RESPA Mortgage Servicing Rule in January 2013 to implement certain provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act imposing new obligations on mortgage servicers who are generally responsible for billing borrowers for amounts due, collecting payments, disbursing funds, and providing customer service. The rule also added new protections which the Bureau deemed appropriate or necessary to carry out the consumer protection purposes of RESPA. This rule also took effect in January 2014.

The Dodd-Frank Act requires the Bureau to conduct an assessment of each significant rule or order adopted by the Bureau and to publish a report of its assessment no later than five years after the effective date of the significant rule or order.  The assessment shall address, among other relevant factors, the effectiveness of the rule in meeting the purposes and objectives of the Dodd-Frank Act and the specific goals stated by the Bureau in issuing the rule in question.  The assessment shall reflect available evidence and any data that the Bureau reasonably may collect. Before publishing a report of its assessment, the Bureau shall invite public comment on recommendations for modifying, expanding, or eliminating the rule or order.

The assessment of the Ability to Repay and Qualified Mortgage Rule uses a range of data sources, including a unique data set the Bureau assembled for purposes of this assessment, to comprehensively examine the extent to which the rule has affected consumers’ access to credit and the cost of credit.  The assessment of the Servicing Rule likewise uses a range of data, again including a unique data set the Bureau assembled, to thoroughly examine how the rule has affected the experiences and outcomes for consumers, with a particular focus on those who fall behind on their mortgage payments.

Pursuant to decisions Bureau leadership made in 2015 and 2016, the reports do not include a cost - benefit- analysis of these rules overall or of any specific provisions of these rules, but each report does address matters relating to the costs and benefits. The Bureau is considering whether to include cost-benefit analysis in future assessments and related reports. The Bureau expects that the findings in these reports will inform stakeholders, policy makers, and the general public about developments in the mortgage market and the effects of the rules on consumers.

The issuance of these reports is not the end of the line for the Bureau. The agency is interested in hearing reactions from stakeholders to the reports’ findings and conclusions. The Bureau anticipates that continued interaction with and receipt of information from stakeholders about these rules will help inform the Bureau’s future policy decisions.

The game has changed. Agile start-ups, and truly innovative insurers have proved that the customer is responding to products and services that match their lifestyle choices and inspire engagement. Should your organisation have the courage to make innovation a reality there is a huge opportunity to both secure your customers’ future loyalty and attract new ones too.

However, one real challenge lies in convincing new and existing customer of the true value of these offerings through effective marketing and communications campaigns.

To enable insurers to effectively communicate the value of their products and services, Insurance Nexus are holding a webinar that uncovers the key strategies in how to “Make Your Customers Invest in Your Insurance Products & Services by Marketing True Value”. On the 1^st February 2019 (16:00 GMT) hear from by Janthana Kaenprakhamroy (CEO, Tapoly), Dylan Bourguignon (CEO, so-sure) and Greg Donaldson (Senior Analyst, Aite Group).

Register for this exclusive webinar here for insights into how best to communicate with your target market in 2019, including:

• Hear what leading insurers are working on right now to win customers over and make them invest in new products and services
• Discover the key challenges of breaking through the wall of silence and engaging with your customers so that they remain loyal to your organisation
• Deploy exciting and effective marketing and advertising campaigns that really speak to your customer

Register for the webinar here, and if you can’t join live, you will be sent the recordings once the webinar has run.

For more information, please get in touch:

Graham Proud

Head of European Project Delivery

Insurance Nexus

Tel: +44(0)20 7375 7221

graham.proud@insurancenexus.com

Insurance Nexus is the central hub for insurance executives. Through in-depth industry analysis, targeted research, niche events and quality content, we provide the industry with a platform to network, discuss, learn and shape the future of the insurance industry.

Insurance Nexus is part of FC Business Intelligence Ltd. FC Business Intelligence Ltd is a registered company in England and Wales. Registered number 04388971, 7-9 Fashion Street, London, E1 6PX, UK

This Sunday marks the first anniversary of the Open Banking initiative. This ground-breaking reform changed previously rigid rules to make the financial services sector more competitive and focused on the customer.  

Cloud-based digital banks have taken advantage of this initiative by offering better services to customers, as 8 out of 10 Millennials say they would switch banks for personalised service. Such fintech players and challenger banks now account for 20 per cent of the banking and payments market in Europe. 

However, acquiring these new customers is not enough for digital banks to stay competitive, according to customer relationship marketing experts at the customer data platform Optimove. Challenger banks need to find new and personalised marketing strategies to keep brand-agnostic customers loyal – or else they will be made irrelevant by other agile providers with better product offerings. 

Roni Cohen, Director of Data Science at Optimove, comments:  “In the age of Open Banking, the best way for these agile technology driven banks to effectively implement personalisation is to make the most of the available customer data, which is now also available to their competitors. 

“A customer-centric approach using advanced technologies can help create a long-term competitive advantage. This can be done by looking at customer data to find out what value means to each person, and communicating with customers in an emotionally intelligent way to create value for each and every customer. By using AI, banks’ marketers can gain actionable insights and build effective campaigns and strategies that will target customers at the right time, the right channel and with the right offer for a fully personalized experience.”

Roni concludes: “As consumers see an increasingly personalised experience, challenger banks will be able to distinguish their brands with promotions and rewards tailored to each individual – just like retailers do.”