Brokers and hedge funds wanting to offer digital assets to their client base can now partner with Market Synergy for institutional standard cryptocurrency connectivity and security and take a FIX feed or ISP link to Bitfinex’s digital asset gateway. 

Bitfinex is the world’s leading cryptocurrency trading platform, known for pioneering the most sophisticated trading experience in the market. This landmark innovation now enables institutional firms and professional traders to connect to Bitfinex through Market Synergy, providing best in market performance through low latency and robust connectivity. This also creates a significant opportunity for institutional clients who are looking to diversify their offering with digital asset trading.

As announced in July 2018, Swiss-based Market Synergy was selected to design and build a bespoke network for Bitfinex. Following extensive planning and development, the combined offering from Market Synergy and Bitfinex will go live today after scheduled downtime necessary to complete the data migration. Market Synergy’s infrastructure, which is hosted in a Swiss data centre in the heart of Crypto Valley, is highly secure, reliable and supported 24x7. 

James Banister, CEO, Market Synergy comments, “Since we announced our plans to provide institutional standard connectivity for Bitfinex, we have had significant interest from global brokers and hedge funds to connect through our network to Bitfinex’s digital asset gateway. I am delighted that we are going live today and that institutional clients worldwide can benefit from our high performance connectivity to Bitfinex. We can also now offer colocation services to any Bitfinex institutional client.”

Paolo Ardoino, CTO, Bitfinex adds, “At Bitfinex we are constantly innovating to provide the most sophisticated trading platform in the market, and working with Market Synergy, we have been able to take a pioneering step forward with our data migration to dedicated private servers. It has been a considerable undertaking but one we felt was integral to provide a service that matches our ambition and market expectation. We are glad to have been able to collaborate with Market Synergy to provide a solution that promises even greater speed and security across our platforms.”

Market Synergy aims to become the leading institutional outsourced connectivity provider in the cryptocurrency space. It is a separate company within the FXecosystem Group, which also comprises of FXecosystem and Bondecosystem, both of which are institutional market leaders in outsourced connectivity in their respective asset classes. 

Bitfinex is a digital asset trading platform offering state-of-the-art services for digital currency traders and global liquidity providers. 

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has completed its implementation of Phase 1 of Modernized Economic and Financial Statistical Reporting (EFS) using Wolters Kluwer’s OneSumX for Regulatory Reporting. EFS is an ambitious regulatory change program, managed by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).

OneSumX Regulatory Reporting uses a single source of data to ensure consistency, reconciliation and accuracy and includes the firm’s Regulatory Update Service. This unique service is maintained by Wolters Kluwer experts who actively monitor regulation in approximately 30 countries, helping to ensure the solution is current at all times. Bendigo and Adelaide Bank specifically use the Regulatory Reporting functionality for its Authorised Deposit-Taking Institution in Australia.

“During our program Wolters Kluwer’s experts have assisted the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank implementation team, keeping within budget and delivering on schedule,” said Patricia Zeitz, Divisional CFO, Consumer Banking, for Bendigo and Adelaide Bank. “We look forward to delivering the APRA reporting automation in full and keeping ahead of future regulatory changes with assistance from this expert team. Using a number of Wolters Kluwer solutions to benchmark our submissions to regulators, the bank will continue to assist regulators by producing their required information in the most unified and expedient way possible.”

David Rule, Australia and New Zealand Account Manager at Wolters Kluwer’s Finance, Risk & Reporting (FRR) business, added: “Working with the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank finance team has been a mutually rewarding experience for us all. Their professional and dedicated approach meant the first deliverables of the project were signed off and ready for production well ahead of time. Wolters Kluwer is now positioned to benchmark the bank’s reporting to our other clients across a wide range of regulators.”

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

Wolters Kluwer FRR receives frequent independent recognition of its excellence and innovation. In mid-2018, Risk magazine awarded the company its coveted Regulatory Reporting System of The Year Award and Central Banking magazine recently named OneSumX for Regulatory Reporting its Best Technology Solution For Regulatory Compliance.

Wolters Kluwer FRR is also this year’s Category Winner for Regulatory Reporting in the annual RiskTech100® report. This comprehensive study of the world’s leading risk and compliance technology companies is compiled by Chartis Research. Notably, this is the seventh time in eight years that Wolters Kluwer FRR has achieved this honor.

When it comes to the financial services sector, businesses are going through a high-tension period marked by the need to contend with rapidly evolving cybersecurity threats, keeping pace with technology and choosing where to spend their money. The changing nature of work also means that financial services leaders are beginning to get more strategic about automation.

For Stuart Rye, Director Business Development, Financial Services at Fujitsu, becoming agile will be a major theme this year that will see companies prioritise values such as experimentation, collaboration and communications. However very few companies will become truly agile in the next 12 months.

“There are a lot of questions around moving to the cloud from a regulatory perspective, which is tied in with the complexity of the systems and impairs firms’ ability to become truly agile. Of course becoming an agile company entails various levels of technological sophistication and organisational change. The shift in how banks and insurers interact with customers and handle various processes, for instance, means that next year many will focus on optimising their back-office. We’ve seen some organisations that are well down the path to automation, while others are just starting out,” said Rye.

Unlike blockchain technology that has a long-term growth trajectory and is still waiting to go mainstream, the move to the cloud and desire to automate processes will be top-of-mind for business leaders next year. This will prompt a cultural change within many organisations, who will look to employ people that are capable of responding to these challenges.

In light of this, Stuart Rye shared three of his top predictions for what we should expect from the financial services industry in the coming year:

1. Getting industrial with automation

At this point, all banks and insurers have experimented at least to some extent with automation, and some of them have registered remarkable results, reducing the time spent on some processes down from hours to less than a minute. However, this stage of experimentation needs to be taken to the next level and next year more firms are likely to get industrial with automation.

Often, organisations implement automation in a disjointed and decentralised way that leads to only few employees actually recognising the benefits. That’s why in 2019, we’ll likely begin to see more and more conversation around automation versus intelligent automation, with an emphasis on the “intelligent” aspect.

2. Financial services to cash in on multi-cloud challenge

Most financial services organisations have had experience migrating data in the cloud, however in many cases this has been done in a decentralised manner, with each department acting on its own. Because of the complexities involved – such as data sovereignty and compliance, regulations and infrastructure – next year, financial services organisations will seek a multi-cloud strategy that allows them to deploy both public and private cloud platforms for different applications and resources.

The popularity of multi-cloud platforms will increase next year as more IT leaders find it enables them to deploy applications and workloads in the environment that best suits their individual requirements for compliance, flexibility and simplicity. As IT increasingly heads in the direction towards multi-cloud environments, the trend will continue towards simplification, with growing levels of drag-and-drop orchestration, enabled by automation technologies becoming more and more common.

3. Increased spending in cybersecurity

We live in a state of cyberwarfare and fear is growing by the minute, meaning that financial services organisations – many with the status of critical national infrastructure – are concerned about ways to protect themselves. On the other hand, regulators have their own hesitations and are wary for example of banks keeping all their assets in one cloud server due to fear of an outage or breach. This is topped-up by a continuing element of industrialised cyber criminality and the social engineering aspect of cyber for both consumers and businesses.

Cyber-resilience is another notion that will surface more and more next year. Increasingly, the trust customers place in financial services institutions is dependent on their belief that the organisation is capable of managing and keeping their own assets safe. From a reputational perspective, this puts even more pressure on organisations to increase spending in cybersecurity.

Simultaneously, due to the nature of today’s connected world, if as bank your customers’ assets are at risk, your assets are at risk too. This might prompt some organisations to re-think their approach to educating consumers and we’re likely to see next year more banks invest more in guiding both business owners and the general public how to protect themselves from cybercriminals.

The Ofcom Claims Management System will allow real-time claim processing, communication and payments throughout the project.

Equiniti Limited, the multinational technology and payments specialist, is delighted to announce that it has been selected by Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, to run the Programme Making and Special Events (PMSE) grant funding scheme. 

The scheme facilitates the accelerated clearance of the 700 MHz band of radio spectrum ahead of its release for new mobile services. Current mobile devices already cover this band for 4G mobile services, and in the longer term, low frequency spectrum such as the 700 MHz band could be suitable for 5G. PMSE users, including theatres, broadcasters, and live music and sporting events, will no longer have access to this part of the radio spectrum in the UK from 1^stMay 2020. 

To support the 700 MHz PMSE funding scheme, which will compensate up to 20,000 items of PMSE equipment,Equiniti will operate the Ofcom Claims Management System (OCMS). OCMS supports a digital claims processing journey, allowing registration, claims management, communications and payments to be made, as well as facilitating real-time reporting between Ofcom, Claimants, and Equiniti.

Gavin Lane,Senior Director atEquiniti, commented:

“We are delighted to have won this contract and look forward to working in collaboration with Ofcom again having managed a similar project for them nearly a decade ago. Since then, Equiniti has broadened its range of client propositions and established its pedigree in the flawless execution of highly-complex, multi-disciplinary projects – this winning bid evidences our digital journey and expertise in registration and payments. We are naturally delighted to be working with Ofcom again on this large scale project.”

Global payments disrupter Paysend, which has the only global card to card money transfer network, has launched another innovative service called PaySendLink.

The new service means that consumers will need just the recipient’s mobile phone number to send money to somebody overseas.

Ronald Millar, CEO of PaySend, said: “We are constantly looking for ways to simplify and improve customer experience and make it even easier for the sender to initiate a transaction. Now all they have to do is provide a recipient’s phone number and click send. Forget lengthy forms and account numbers - money transfers have never been easier with PaySend’s unique platform.”

According to PaySend, the new service makes Swift, IBAN, sort codes and account numbers obsolete by streamlining the user experience and offering a simple and secure way for individuals to transact. 

With PaySendLink the recipient will see the incoming transfer and be able to direct it to any Visa, MasterCard, UnionPay card or a bank account of their choice, and start shopping or withdraw cash at any ATM worldwide.

Ronald added: “Besides being super convenient for the sender, PaysendLink also puts recipient’s worries at ease – they don’t have to send any personal information to a sender, only provide their phone number. Their personal information is entered directly into our secure platform. 

“This sets a new standard when it comes to security and safety of customer data and financial information shared across borders. What’s more – it’s a recipient who decides where he wants to direct the incoming transfer to – their bank account, debit or credit card. 
 

Kamakura Corporation is pleased to announce that RHB Banking Group, (http://www.rhbgroup.com/), the fourth largest fully-integrated financial services organization in Malaysia, has chosen Kamakura Risk Manager to manage its Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR) requirements. 

Mastercard today announced that Donald Chesnut will join the company as its first chief experience officer, effective January 14, 2019.

In this newly created role, he will lead a team that supports the organization’s delivery of the best consumer payment experience, while providing merchants, issuers and other partners a more holistic way to work with Mastercard’s products and services.

“Providing customers with clear, consistent and rewarding experience is what differentiates leaders from the rest of the pack. Donald’s background and extensive work with leading brands across cultures and countries will build on a strong foundation and strengthen our ongoing activities,” said Michael Miebach, chief product officer.

Chesnut joins Mastercard from SapientRazorfish, where he most recently served as its global chief experience officer.  In this role, he helped Fortune 500 clients transform their businesses by integrating consumer-centric thinking into innovative brand experiences.

Over the past two-plus decades, he served in several roles at Sapient. Before becoming global chief experience officer in 2017, Chesnut had also supported clients as chief creative officer and lead for the agency’s experience design practice. He also held digital and interactive experience roles with American Express and Siegel & Gale.

Chesnut received a master’s degree in Interactive Telecommunications and bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Dramatic Literature, all from New York University.

Nets, a market leader in the payments industry, has today announced the completion of the acquisition of leading Polish online payment service providers Dotpay/eCard. Andrzej Budzik will continue as CEO of Dotpay/eCard and the brands of Dotpay and eCard will remain. 

With this acquisition Nets gains access to the sixth largest country in EU by inhabitants with a growing economy and eCommerce volumes. Poland also has high growth potential through cash to digital payments conversion, which is well supported by governmental cashless initiatives.

CEO of Nets, Bo Nilsson, said: “With the acquisition of Dotpay/eCard we extend our presence in Europe and get access to new opportunities in Poland which is a high growth market, especially within the merchant services area. We aim to continue the strong development Dotpay/eCard have experienced in recent years through both investments into organic growth and further consolidation.”

Nets and Dotpay/eCard have a highly complementary strategic fit. With a comprehensive product suite, primarily within eCommerce, Dotpay/eCard complement Nets very well, and both Nets and Dotpay/eCard will benefit from increased industrial scale and synergies e.g. through joint innovation.

CEO of Dotpay/eCard, Andrzej Budzik, commented: “We look forward to pursuing joint opportunities and further strengthening our service offerings to merchants. As part of the Nets Group we will be able to drive faster time to market of state-of-the-art solutions, underlining our ambition to be at the forefront of innovation.”

Investment Partner at MCI, Łukasz Wierdak, said: “We are very pleased to have finalized the exit process. Dotpay/eCard have developed tremendously over the past years and now, with Nets being a strategic investor, the future looks very promising for the group. This was a very successful investment for MCI generating 3.0x CoC and almost 40% IRR over a 3-year investment period. We are continuously looking to support companies from digital economy in their dynamic development. I would like to thank the management board for the fruitful cooperation and wish the Dotpay/eCard and Nets teams lots of success for the future”.

• Top bosses earn 133 times more than the average worker 

• Latest CIPD/High Pay Centre analysis finds that the average FTSE 100 CEO is paid £1,020 per hour and £3.926 million a year, an increase of 11% on the previous year

• Excessive pay and the business culture of ‘Superstar’ CEOs is increasingly being recognised as a failure of corporate governance, affecting employee engagement and trust in business leadership

• New regulations requiring large publicly-listed firms to publish the ratio between CEO pay and the pay of the average worker and revisions to the UK Corporate Governance Code create a burning platform for reform of the remuneration committees charged with setting executive pay 

Friday 4 January 2019 is “Fat Cat” Friday. In just three working days, the UK’s top bosses make more than a typical full-time worker will earn in the entire year, according to calculations from independent think tank the High Pay Centre and the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development. 

The average (median) full-time worker in the UK earns a gross annual salary of £29,574. “Fat Cat” Friday recognises that in 2019 the average FTSE 100 CEO, on an average (median) pay packet of £3.9 million, only needs to work until 1pm on Friday 4 January 2019 to earn the same amount. The £3.9 million figure was calculated by the CIPD and the High Pay Centre in their 2018 analysis of top pay and it marks an 11% increase on the £3.5 million figure reported in their 2017 analysis. The pay increase means that FTSE 100 CEOs, working an average 12-hour day, will only need to work for 29 hours in 2019 to earn the average worker’s annual salary, two hours fewer than in 2018.

The CIPD and High Pay Centre are highlighting the problem of rising executive pay in a new report launched today. The report, RemCo reform: Governing successful organisations that benefit everyone, identifies the shortcomings of the remuneration committees (RemCos) charged with setting executive pay and calls for them to be significantly reformed. In particular, it highlights: 

• the myth of ‘super talent’ as a factor that continues to drive excessive pay with one remuneration committee chair commenting: “It’s nuts… and nuts has become the benchmark”. 

• how there needs to be much greater diversity among those responsible for setting CEO pay, both in terms of their ethnicity and gender, for example, but also their professional backgrounds and expertise in order to combat ‘group think’.

• how current pay mechanisms contribute to the problem of high pay. In response, the CIPD and High Pay Centre recommend replacing long-term incentive plans (LTIP’s) as the default model for executive remuneration with a less complex system based on a basic salary and a much smaller restricted share award. This would simplify the process of setting executive pay and ensure that pay is more closely aligned to executive performance. 

The CIPD and High Pay Centre are calling for RemCos to ensure that CEO pay is aligned more appropriately to rewards across the wider workforce and that their contribution is measured on both financial and non-financial measures of performance. This should include measures such as employee well-being and investment in workforce training and development – all of which are crucial for good corporate governance.

Simplification of executive pay could also allow more time for the committees to focus on other issues that are critical to wider corporate governance and also interact with pay and reward, such as corporate culture, good people management and sustainable performance driven by positive purpose. To reflect this wider remit, the CIPD and High Pay Centre suggest both refocusing and renaming remuneration committees so they become People and Culture Committees (PACCs).

Peter Cheese, chief executive of the CIPD, comments: “There is still far too great a gap between top earners and the rest of the workforce. Average pay has stagnated whilst top CEO reward has grown, despite overall slow economic growth and very variable business performance. Excessive pay packages awarded by remuneration committees represent a significant failure in corporate governance and perpetuate the idea of a ‘superstar’ business leader when business is a collective endeavor and reward should be shared more fairly. This imbalance does nothing to help heal the many social and economic divides facing the country. 

“Stakeholders of all kinds, including many shareholders, are looking for significant shifts in corporate cultures and behaviours. Evolving the RemCoto become a broader people and culture committee would help boards focus on and gain deeper understanding of the organisational, cultural, and people aspects of their business, and the opportunities and risks they pose. By better reflecting the value, contribution, diversity and well-being of our workforces in corporate governance and reporting, we can help restore trust in business and drive better business outcomes for everyone.”

Luke Hildyard, Director of the High Pay Centre, said: “Excessive executive pay represents a massive corporate governance failure and is a barrier to a fairer economy. Corporate boards are too willing to spend millions on top executives without any real justification, while the wider workforce is treated as a cost to be minimised. To raise living standards, we need growth and innovation, but also to ensure that growth is fairly distributed. CEO pay packages 133 times the size of the average UK worker suggest we could do a lot better in this respect.”

The refocused and potentially renamed RemCo would act as a champion for the importance of culture at board level, an issue which has been highlighted in revisions to the UK Corporate Governance Code. In addition to new executive pay transparency measures, the updated Code, effective from 1 January 2019, places an increased emphasis on company purpose and values as drivers of corporate governance. Some of the key responsibilities that the CIPD and High Pay Centre recommend for the PACC include:

• Evaluating the impact of the company’s reward practices throughout the organisation, ensuring that sustainable performance, including societal and environmental impact, are included as key considerations in deciding remuneration and award. For example, by examining whether pay and benefits are aligned with the company’s purpose; whether they incentivise appropriate behaviours and performance; and whether differences in pay and reward levels from top to bottom are fair and proportionate.

• Responsibility for setting, monitoring and reviewing remuneration and compensation payments for executive directors, chairman and board members, as well as overseeing succession planning and the development of long-term executive capability within the organisation.

• Drawing on reliable and up-to-date information from HR teams about workforce demographics and changes, people management practices and organisational culture in order to ensure that company culture and the well-being of the workforce are consistent with the long-term strategy and purpose.

• Setting out strategic objectives in relation to organisational culture and people management, designed to ensure the long-term success and sustainability of the company as well as ensuring that the long-term well-being and development of the workforce and organisation forms an integral part of business strategy.