Bitcoin and blockchain have the power to dramatically alter the way we deal with money. They function on principles that differ radically from what the traditional finance industry is used to. They work so differently, in fact, that many predict that Bitcoin and the blockchain technology it works on are to be the downfall of traditional banking.

But is there any truth to these claims?

Well, they probably won’t end banks as much as they will change them. The most likely scenario would be that banks incorporate the positive Bitcoin and blockchain characteristics into their infrastructure. In theory, there’s a series of benefits banks can enjoy by doing this, the chief of which would have to be the decrease in time and cost and increase in security.

An important note: the following will mostly discuss blockchain, but since Bitcoin is simply a practical application of blockchain, the concepts can apply to both.

Time And Cost

Blockchain’s decentralized system can greatly cut costs and shave time off many tasks. Faster payments with lower fees, for instance, would be made possible.

Money as we know it today moves from one place to another rather slowly, and the service of transferring said money must be paid for. Under blockchain technology cash can be transferred quickly without the need for intermediaries to do the moving.

Smart contracts will also play a major role in improving efficiency in banking. In broad strokes, smart contracts are virtual protocols that operate like self-defining, self-enforcing, and self-terminating contracts. This means that there would be no hassle of signing and updating contracts manually, and no need to pay the people who handle the paperwork.

Security

Loans and credit would be far safer affairs too. Since the intermediary entities normally responsible for issuing loans and credit are particularly vulnerable to theft and fraud, a system that relies on decentralization would circumnavigate this issue by eliminating this weak link. Security could also be bolstered by the use of crypto tokens, which would protect bonds or stocks through encryption of private data.  

Seeing that all information on a blockchain gets stored throughout its network rather than in one central location, the risks of major cyber attacks causing massive damage are greatly reduced. The advantage of this becomes clear once you recall the Equifax hack of 2017, which leaked well over 145 million Americans’ credit information. An attack on that scale would be nigh impossible against a blockchain, because the hacker attempting it would have to tamper with all data blocks within the network.

The advantages of Bitcoin and blockchain-based banking shine brightly, and quite a few banks are already planning to turn to cryptocurrency (XRP in this case) in 2019. Though the process of change to this kind of system will be slow due to apprehension about this nascent technology, odds are that it will become a norm over time.

Seeing how relevant Bitcoin and blockchain promise to become in the future, getting to know more about them is more important now than ever. If you are new to this topic and are worried about it being hard to understand, don’t worry, there is an easy introduction - the amazing infographic from Bitcoinfy you’ll find below!

This guide will serve as a great starting point on your endeavour to learn more about Bitcoin and blockchain. It lays out all the vital info you need, all the while keeping it easy to follow and understand, because of its unique, reader-friendly visual presentation.

Novidea, the data-driven platform provider for the insurance industry, is pleased to announce that Ben Potts has joined the company as Managing Director UK, to spearhead the company's growth and expansion across the UK and EMEA region. Previously, Ben held various leadership and revenue-focused executive roles with Majesco, Xchanging and Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT).

Ben brings more than 15 years of broad insurance industry knowledge, operations, sales and customer service expertise to Novidea, with a deep understanding of the Commercial, London Market, Global Speciality and Delegated Authority Business sectors.

With full responsibility for Novidea’s new London office and UK operations, Ben will play a key role in advancing the company’s ambitious expansion plans for the region, as well as sharing his expertise and knowledge with our rapidly growing customer base. 

“I’m delighted to have Ben join the management team at such an exciting time for Novidea.  With his proven track record, passion for the industry and strong leadership skills, Ben was a natural choice to head the UK office and will be a great asset to Novidea,” said Roi Agababa, CEO of Novidea. “The insurance sector is currently undergoing a period of rapid change, and we are seeing growing demand for the customer-centric data-driven propositions that our platform delivers. Ben’s deep knowledge of the UK and international insurance markets will prove invaluable as we forge ahead with our ambitious growth plans and continue to develop new and exciting solutions to meet the evolving needs of the insurance market.”

“There is a massive change happening across the international insurance market driven by M&As and a need to modernise to stay competitive in a crowded market. Novidea is championing change in insurance distribution by reshaping the customer experience and redefining how insurance businesses leverage their data. I am excited to be part of such an innovative and progressive company with market leading cloud-based solutions,” said Ben Potts, Managing Director at Novidea.  ”It is a pleasure to lead the UK team and continue to grow our UK and international customer community.  2019 is an exciting year for Novidea as we build on our already strong reputation and deliver on Novidea’s vision for the future.”

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the premier post-trade market infrastructure for the global financial services industry, today announced that it has received regulatory approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority to provide trade reporting services in Switzerland via DTCC’s Global Trade Repository service (GTR) in Europe. 

DTCC’s GTR in Europe is the largest European Markets Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR)-registered trade repository in terms of reports collected from its clients, according to figures  from the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA). The service has more than 3,500 clients sending over 500 million messages per month, with 46 European regulators regularly accessing its data.

Now having also obtained recognition as a Foreign Trade Repository in Switzerland, GTR will further expand its services to market participants in support of reporting obligations that fall under the Swiss Financial Markets Infrastructure Act (FMIA), also known as FinfraG. FinfraG aligns Swiss derivatives trading regulation with international standards and requires that firms with a registered office in Switzerland report their derivatives trades to an authorised or recognised trade repository. 

Val Wotton, Managing Director, Product Development and Strategy, Derivatives and Collateral Management at DTCC, said: “We are pleased to have received regulatory approval to provide trade repository services in Switzerland. Market participants continue to seek a single platform that handles trade reporting across multiple jurisdictions and asset classes, and we are proud to extend our capabilities to Swiss market participants and to provide increased value to our clients.” 

Today, GTR provides derivatives trade reporting services through its registered trade repositories across several jurisdictions, including the United States, Canada, Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Australia, and across all over-the-counter (OTC) asset classes, including credit, interest rates, equities, foreign exchange and commodities. With this announcement, DTCC’s GTR in Europe will now be able to fully support EMIR, Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR), subject to regulatory approval, and FinfraG regulations from a single platform.

BOKIS, a Danish banking collective, and Nets, a market leader in the payments industry, have extended their existing agreement on handling payments with international cards. The agreement ensures that regional and nationwide banks in the BOKIS association, comprising 40% of the Danish payment card market, can continue to benefit from an efficient and stable card infrastructure. 

Nets will facilitate international payment card transactions for BOKIS, a collective with more than 50 members, and provide better terms and a dedicated platform to combat card fraud until 2021. 

"We are pleased that with the agreement we can offer our banks better terms and lower overall costs over the next few years. This is important in a highly competitive market," says Søren Nicolaisen, Director of National Banking, BOKIS.

"In recent years, together with Nets, we have developed new digital solutions that provide better customer service while reducing costs for banks, for example in cardholder disputes. To continue this, we have decided to renew the existing agreement for three more years," says Jan Kondrup, Director of Local Banks, BOKIS.

The previous agreement, signed in 2014, has been expanded to include new services which help to prevent card fraud, such as Smart Block and Consumer Protection.

Nets too, is looking forward to the continued cooperation.

"It should be easy for banks to offer simple and intuitive customer solutions in a payment market that is becoming more and more complex. We are pleased to be extending our partnership with the banks in the BOKIS association, thus giving us the opportunity to continue our joint development of new solutions that make everyday business easier for cardholders," says Thomas Jul, Head of Financial & Network Services, Nets.

Braintri, a European leader in fintech innovations, today announced a new deal with Benefia part of Vienna Insurance Group. The insurance subscription platform developed by Braintri is being launched in several sales channels of Benefia, including mobile. The platform, named hiPRO Connector, has already been implemented for Allianz. The new implementation marks a busy year for Braintri with new mobile banking projects for PKO BP and mBank.

The insurance subscription platform implemented for Benefia is offered on the market under the brand hiPRO Connector. It allows customers to pay for car insurance in monthly installments, a relatively new and innovative scheme for insurance products. The Polish insurtech hiPRO is responsible for the business development of the platform, while the Estonian Inbank and the Polish Alior Bank will be providing the financing for Benefia customers.

The new deal is another step in Braintri’s dynamic business expansion in recent years. Apart from insurtech projects for Allianz and Benefia, the Warsaw-based fintech has been constantly strengthening its market position as a leading provider of mobile banking solutions. In 2018, Braintri successfully implemented numerous new functions in the globally-awarded IKO mobile app for PKO Bank Polski, the largest bank in Central Europe. Recently, Braintri also started developing the mobile app for mBank, recognized as a European mobile banking champion.

"We entered 2019 with the feeling we achieved most of our goals. Winning over new big brands proves that our efforts in providing the current customers with world-class IT services are noticed and appreciated. There are new goals ahead, including finalizing the company’s merger with iCompass, planned rebranding, and gaining a stronger foothold on international markets. This will surely be the busiest year in Braintri’s 6-year history," says Wojciech Zatorski, Braintri’s Co-Founder and COO.

Earlier in 2018, Braintri announced a plan for a merger with another Polish innovative fintech, iCompass. The move will allow both companies to provide customers with payment and big data products tailor-made for the open banking era. Braintri is the owner of the globally-recognized Jiffee, a white-label mobile payment solution, and Biffee, a big data core banking offload engine. iCompass is the technology provider for Poland’s first mPOS platform, and developed the Octopus Payment Hub universal payment gateway.

In recent years, Braintri finished its first project in response to the open banking EU regulations (PSD2) and implemented the Biffee core banking offload engine in PKO BP. Currently, Braintri is developing a PSD2 hub for the Polish National Clearing House (KIR). These solutions, branded Polish API, will serve as a single access point for all external parties. It will be available to commercial banks in the first quarter of 2019.

Irish businesses are being given a connectivity boost thanks to Claranet, the global technology services provider, who will be rolling out MPLS Superfast Broadband across the country. Expanding on its current MPLS Ethernet and Broadband offering, the new service will offer lightning fast speeds of up to 100Mbps, filling the gap between the existing broadband services which Claranet currently provides.  

As cloud services and web applications become more popular and increasingly sophisticated, businesses are expecting their technology provider to offer higher bandwidth and faster download speeds. Claranet are looking to the future by rolling out a powerful and reliable MPLS network infrastructure that can cope with any technical requirements. The superfast broadband will be available to all businesses across Ireland and Claranet is expecting an extremely high demand for the new service.        

Many large commercial organisations, especially those in retail and finance, are looking for enhanced network connectivity that can cope with continual fluctuations in usage and is capable of processing large volumes of data during times of peak demand. Claranet’s new MPLS Superfast Broadband will enable companies of all sizes to take advantage of the latest technologies and applications, including AI, chatbots, immersive AR and VR, which will improve their customer experience offering. 

Smaller offices will also benefit from the new service, as additional sites can be easily incorporated into the company’s wider network estate while allowing applications such as Skype or video conferencing to be fully utilised. When coupled with Claranet Online, MPLS Superfast Broadband offers IT departments complete visibility of their entire digital network estate, including service details, the status of the connectivity and bandwidth utilisation. 

Dave Palmer, Head of Network Design at Claranet UK, talked about the growing demand for improved network connectivity: “Businesses across the country are capitalising on the latest innovations, including cloud computing, Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence which all depend on having a fast, powerful and reliable internet connection to operate effectively. Our MPLS Superfast Broadband service will empower Irish businesses to take advantage of these sophisticated technologies, enabling them to achieve their digital transformation objectives and vastly improve their customer experience offering.” 

Claranet will offer a fully managed service and oversee the whole process, from installation to configuring the MPLS network, without having to purchase additional VPN hardware devices. It will also install a direct internet line for any business that does not have an existing connection so they can take advantage of the new service.

DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC) and Luxoft Holding, Inc (NYSE: LXFT) today announced a definitive agreement for DXC to acquire Luxoft, a global-scale digital innovator with differentiated offerings, deep vertical industry expertise and world-class digital talent.

Pursuant to the agreement between DXC and Luxoft, all of the issued and outstanding Luxoft Class A and Class B ordinary shares will receive $59.00 per share in cash, representing a total equity value of approximately $2 billion.

Together, DXC and Luxoft will offer a differentiated customer value proposition for end-to-end digital transformation by combining Luxoft’s digital engineering capabilities with DXC’s expertise in IT modernization and integration. The acquisition will accelerate the digital growth and scale-out strategy outlined by DXC at its Investor Day last fall, and will broaden access to key digital talent.

Luxoft provides digital strategy consulting and engineering services for companies across North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. Headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, the company achieved $911 million in revenue over the last four reported quarters, with a strong, double-digit compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the last three years.

“Luxoft and DXC are highly complementary, and our shared vision of digital transformation makes this strategic combination a great fit for both organizations -- as well as enormously beneficial for our clients,” said Mike Lawrie, chairman, president and CEO, DXC Technology. “Luxoft has a proven track record and expertise in producing measurable business outcomes at-scale for global clients across key industries, including automotive and financial services. The addition of Luxoft accelerates DXC’s growth strategy as we equip the company to meet the digital requirements of our clients today and in the future.”

A Digital Leader

Luxoft offers differentiated digital capabilities in areas such as analytics, UX/UI, IoT and blockchain, and is a significant player in outsourced engineering services, cloud and devops. Luxoft brings strong vertical expertise in key industries, including automotive (digital cockpit, autonomous drive, connected mobility), financial services (digital consulting, regulatory & compliance, platform implementation) and healthcare/life sciences (digital lab, customer engagement). Luxoft also brings a strong portfolio of other industry offerings for travel, media & communications and energy & utilities.

Together, Luxoft and DXC will have industry expertise that is both broad and deep. The combined company will be able to offer:

• End-to-end digital capabilities for the financial services industry, with a true global footprint;
• New services in insurance, where DXC is a recognized industry leader;
• Unmatched offerings for the automotive industry, combining Luxoft’s knowledge and experience in car systems with DXC’s capabilities in cloud and security for connected auto services; and
• Industry-leading services in healthcare and life sciences, bringing together DXC’s experience in specialized systems with Luxoft’s digital capabilities.

Luxoft has a highly skilled digital workforce of close to 13,000 people, the majority of whom have a master’s degree or PhD, along with a deep industry background. The company built and operates a unique talent acquisition and management platform that consistently delivers on-time digital hiring, with an ability to leverage the platform across DXC to improve hiring efficiency.

Luxoft serves marquee clients in every region, with particular depth in European markets. In the automotive space, the combined company -- Luxoft plus DXC -- will serve more than 20 manufacturers and OEMs across North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. The combined company will serve half of the top financial institutions in the Americas and Europe.

Luxoft will maintain its brand and operate as “A DXC Technology Company,” and will continue to be led by Dmitry Loschinin, the company’s current president and CEO, who will report to Lawrie.

“Our success in recent years has been led by our talent and ability to design, develop and deliver truly innovative digital solutions tailored to client business needs,” Loschinin said. “Aligning with DXC presents an exciting opportunity to unlock new value for our people, clients and partners. We will gain the scale, resources and market presence to better serve and compete, and to more rapidly realize our vision. As part of DXC, we will preserve Luxoft’s differentiated capabilities and culture while driving growth for the combined company.”

Transaction Benefits

The acquisition of Luxoft will expand DXC’s digital offerings portfolio, broaden its presence in high-growth verticals, enhance access to engineering talent globally and strengthen DXC’s digital value proposition overall. The focus of the transaction will be on accelerating growth for DXC, with a focus on cross-selling digital services, expanding into new markets and scaling digital talent.

The combined company will benefit from Luxoft’s differentiated solutions, platforms, delivery model and IP -- as well as industry-leading partnerships that complement DXC’s own. Revenue synergies are expected to come from cross-selling Luxoft offerings across the DXC portfolio, while bringing DXC’s expertise in IT modernization and digital integration to Luxoft clients.

About the Transaction

Closing of the transaction is anticipated by June 2019 and is subject to customary conditions and regulatory approvals. Shareholders representing approximately 83 percent of the total voting power of Luxoft have delivered written consents in support of the transaction, as a result of which the requisite Luxoft shareholder approval has been obtained.

DXC expects the combination to be value accretive, driven by complementary capabilities and offerings, differentiated solutions for customers in large end-to-end digital transformations, a consistent pipeline of digital talent, and access to fast-growth verticals. Together, DXC and Luxoft will address the full spectrum of business-driven digital initiatives, from modernizing legacy IT systems to delivering transformational digital solutions at scale.

Opportunities for Key Stakeholders

The combination of Luxoft with DXC will create new opportunities for clients, employees, and partners:

• For clients, the combined company will create a new, end-to-end digital transformation proposition and integrated offers for key industry verticals. The combined company will offer differentiated digital platforms that integrate the best capabilities from both companies. Greater access to digital talent will shorten project cycle times, and an expanded delivery center footprint will bring digital capabilities closer to clients.
• For employees, especially designers and engineers, expanded end-to-end capabilities will provide access to the latest technologies and innovations -- with the ability to implement solutions at a global scale. The combined company also will offer significant opportunities for professionals to expand their digital skills, including access to the latest certification programs from technology partners.
• And partners themselves will be able to work with an independent company that combines the best front-end digital capabilities with unmatched skills in IT modernization and integration.

AdTech Studio of CyberAgent, Inc. (listed in the first section of Tokyo Stock Exchange; Stock Code: 4751) has developed "PFX LIVE," which is specialized in monetizing live streaming services in "CA ProFit-X," a supply-side platform.

In recent years, the live streaming market has been growing worldwide, and service media that utilize the live streaming functions such as live commerce, which is a new form of EC, and the game streaming service have been launched one after another. However, since monetizing of live streaming depends the expenditure of stream viewers (hereinafter referred to as viewers) and showing advertisements is considered as a stable source of profits, it was necessary to find a way to advertise without spoiling user experience.

In these circumstances, "CA ProFit-X" has launched "PFX LIVE" as an advertising service specialized in monetizing live streaming services in order to expand the profits of businesses that provide live streaming services.

"PFX LIVE" will provide various advertising functions with consideration for user experience, and reporting and support functions that can return profits of advertisement to streamers (*1).

"Pause roll," the first advertising function "CA ProFit-X" will start providing, lets streamers see the option to take a short break and have an ad play during that time. Since streamers can decide when to play ads during a live broadcast, a larger number of viewers are likely to see the ads without spoiling user experience. 

From now on, "CA ProFit-X" plans to provide "Pre roll," a function that plays advertisements before a live streaming video, and "Post roll," a function that plays advertisements after live streaming, in addition to advertising between intervals of live streaming.

"CA ProFit-X" will provide functions dedicated to live streaming and contribute to the growth of the live streaming market through "PFX LIVE" specialized in monetizing live streaming services.

(*1) As for whether or not to return profits of advertisement is based on the deal made between a live streaming service provider and a streamer.

UBPartner (www.ubpartner.com) announced today that usage of its XT Cloud Service has soared over the last 12 months. New figures show that around 150 insurance firms and banks are now using the service for both quarterly and annual reports, primarily for Solvency II and CRD4 reporting. The newly updated system is servicing some 6,000 conversion and validation processes and making in excess of 7.5m data quality checks. It supports 5 major reporting frameworks, some 20+ independent taxonomy versions and provides a 24/7 service with minimum downtime.

Much of the new growth is driven by actuarial, insurance and banking consulting companies moving their clients to the Cloud Service. As part of this shift, UBPartner's experts take responsibility for managing the software platform, updating software and loading new taxonomies as they are released; allowing the consulting companies to focus on delivering more high-value services to their customers and spending less time on IT issues.

Actuelia is a perfect example of this trend. Providing a full range of actuarial and consulting services, Actuelia offers its insurance clients access to a broad range of experts, thereby guaranteeing the best level of advice in risk analysis and helping insurance firms respond quickly to rapidly evolving competition, product complexity, and regulatory reporting requirements. It was already using UBPartner's flexible XBRL Toolkit (XT) installing it on their clients' local desktops. However, to manage the resourcing demands needed to expand its Solvency 2 reporting services, it decided to move its XBRL conversion and validation activities onto the UBPartner XT Cloud Service. This solution provides the same easy-to-use tools and fully mapped Solvency II templates on a 'Software as a Service (SAAS)' basis, devolving responsibility for IT support to UBPartner.

Ease of implementation and scalability

Frank Boukobza of Actuelia stated: "We are a growing actuarial service company seeking to provide additional value to our customers where we can. UBPartner's XBRL tools are simple to use and allowed us to better help our customers to generate reports for Solvency 2. When UBPartner told us that we could use the same tools over the web, providing more collaboration and removing the hassle of maintaining and updating the software, we were very keen to try it."

"The move to the XT Cloud Service was simple, and the system lived up to everything we hoped for. We can simply add new clients as we continue to grow, without worrying about the additional IT demands. Web access allows our consultants to work alongside clients as they produce their first reports and whenever they need our help. As a result, we can focus on delivering better quality services, while UBPartner manages the technical platform for us. It's a perfect combination."

XT Cloud Service: a simple, low-cost solution

The web-based service is built upon UBPartner's XT Portal software, which can also be implemented as a local system. This solution provides the ideal XBRL reporting platform for Group Finance or Shared Service providers, providing XBRL conversion and validation services to multiple reporting entities or clients. 

The managed Cloud-based service, on the other hand, is ideal for businesses that do not have the IT resources to run the systems themselves. It enables firms to scale usage alongside growth while creating a more collaborative environment to work with clients, as the system can be accessed from anywhere at any time.

Speaking of the Cloud-based service, Steve Berdah, VP - Southern Europe, noted, "UBPartner ensures that the latest security is built into the cloud service and provides full back-up and disaster recovery features that small business often cannot implement. Our partners and customers do not have to concern themselves with installation, software maintenance nor taxonomy updates, as our experienced UBPartner staff takes care of all of that."

"The simple 'pay as you go,' subscription-based model is kind to cash flow and fits nicely with other consulting services being provided. Add to that, the ease of setup and management, and suddenly the scary XBRL project looks a lot friendlier."

"Our team recently updated the underlying technical architecture in a project we called 'Octopus.' The system can now be scaled to support any number of servers effortlessly and offers 24/7 access. UBPartner's XBRL technology has also been certified by XBRL International to support the XBRL standards. These are significant achievements that protect our customers' investments in XBRL."