KPMG has appointed Ian West as its new UK Head of its Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) practice, effective immediately. Alongside West’s appointment, the firm has appointed David Elms as Chair of TMT.

West is a Global Client Lead Partner for some of the firm’s largest clients in the sector, including a global telecommunications provider and an IT giant, and succeeds Alex Holt who is moving to the US to continue his role as KPMG’s Global Head of Media and Telco.

Since joining KPMG in 2001, West has become one of the firm’s leading professionals supporting TMT businesses. He has more than twenty years’ experience in client relationship management across financial services, IT, media, telecommunications and professional services. West has also been a joint lead for KPMG’s c-suite programme, which supports senior clients on their development to the c-suite.

He began his career with NatWest working on technology-driven projects related to smartcards and new digital delivery models. West later became a founding member of a fintech start-up backed by Goldman Sachs and has since undertaken placements in Japan, US and Europe. West holds an MBA from Cass Business School (City University of London) and has completed various boardroom and non-executive director programmes at University of Cambridge Judge Business School.

David Elms will play a critical, market focussed role as Chair of TMT. Elms has 30 years of unrivalled experience across TMT, with especially deep boardroom relationships in media. He specialises in advising clients on strategy and corporate finance transactions. Elms joined KPMG in 1984 and has been a partner since 1998 and UK Head of the Media Sector since 2008.  He is also a key member of KPMG’s global steering committee for TMT.

Commenting on his appointment as UK Head of TMT at KPMG, Ian West said: “Uncertainty might be the new normal in the economy, but for businesses in telecommunications, media and technology, disruption is part of their DNA and has been unsettling their world for decades. I’m excited to lead our UK practice and support those organisations through the persistent challenges they encounter and make the most of the opportunities that rapid innovation and change present.”

Commenting on his appointment as UK Chair of TMT at KPMG, David Elms said: “The challenges businesses are facing now, due to geopolitics and other issues, means that the business environment is changing rapidly. Thus, players in TMT the space, who are used to being the challengers, are having to work harder than before to make sure that they continue to take the opportunities in front of them. As Chair, I will work closely with Ian and the TMT leadership, to help businesses through these challenges. I’ll use my experience to establish new client connections and further develop our longstanding boardroom level relationships. ”   

Alex Holt, Global Head of Media and Telco at KPMG, said: “Both Ian and David are accomplished TMT professionals who understand both the intricacies and needs of businesses from right across the sector. With such impressive track records, I have no doubt they will be an inspiring leaders for our practice in the UK and help our clients fulfil their potential and ambitions.”

As nexo standards continues to respond to the expanding needs of the payments market, the association today announces that ten companies have joined its membership base in 2018 to support the growth of fast, borderless and interoperable card payments globally. 

NCR, NSPK and UnionPay International have joined the association as Principal Members, while AEVI, Barclaycard, Elavon, FEIG ELECTRONIC, ID Tech, NEPTING and Wirecard have become Associate Members. Additionally, existing member PSD Codax has upgraded to Associate membership level and SIA SPA has upgraded to Principal Member status.

“nexo brings together all players within the payment card value chain to address and overcome the challenges they face in relation to cross-border card payment acceptance,” comments Arnaud Crouzet, General Secretary, nexo standards. “Our membership, which now totals almost 90 companies located  around the world, helps drive the strategic direction of the association, develops and evolves the nexo messaging protocols and specifications, and collaborates to share knowledge and expertise to ensure nexo continues to align with evolving industry requirements.”

nexo standards enables fast, interoperable and borderless card payments by standardising the exchange of payment acceptance data between merchants, acquirers, payment service providers and other payment stakeholders. nexo’s messaging protocols and specifications adhere to ISO20022 standards, are universally applicable and freely available globally.

Arnaud continues: “While the payments landscape still remains somewhat fragmented, thanks to the dedicated efforts of our members, we have already come a long way in removing some of the barriers obstructing the development of seamless, cross-border card payment acceptance. Our members are fundamental to our continued success and I encourage interested stakeholders to join us as we advance towards a borderless, secure card payment acceptance ecosystem that harnesses the potential of the ISO20022 standard.”

• 19.12.2018 -- 09:48 am

Financial IT interviews Mark Bradbury, Managing Director of Apply Financial

• 19.12.2018 -- 09:45 am

Paybase Head of Marketing Jessy Conflon explaining how Paybase is enabling more firms to get to market and build better products.

Investors are growing increasingly uncertain over cryptocurrency, with less than 1% indicating that it makes up a significant portion of their investment portfolio according to new data from Assetz Capital’s Q4 Investor Barometer.

In the latest Investor Barometer, a quarterly survey of the peer-to-peer lender’s 31,000-strong investor base, 48% of investors were strongly opposed to investing in cryptocurrencies. Whilst 43% confirmed that they would not be averse to investing in cryptocurrency in the future, just 8% stated that they actually have a small investment in the digital currency.

The latest figures highlight growing uncertainty amongst investors when it comes to cryptocurrencies, with results from the Q1 Investor Barometer showing that 43% of investors thought the cryptocurrency market was on the verge of collapse.

Cryptocurrency has failed to recover since the 65% crash in bitcoin earlier in the year, with Bitcoin’s market capitalisation falling below the £100bn mark this November for the first time in over a year.

Stuart Law, CEO of Assetz Capital said: “With the cryptocurrency marketplace remaining volatile throughout 2018 and most currencies marking new lows since the rapidly dimming peak, this growing uncertainty amongst our investors is to be expected. The novelty is quickly wearing thin and the idea that it could act as a haven in uncertain times appears fundamentally flawed.

“With the unpredictability of the digital currency model, it’s likely that cryptocurrency will continue to be an unsettled prospect into 2019 and beyond.”

The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement, has launched the Western Union^® mobile app in Singapore, connecting customers to their families and loved ones around the world, 24/7. Activation of the app in Singapore has given Western Union a digital trifecta in Asia this year, as Singapore now joins Hong Kong and Malaysia in benefiting from Western Union’s digital acceleration of major regional economic centers across the world.

Customers have the choice to send money directly into billions of bank accounts worldwide, mobile wallets where available or to Western Union’s more than half a million Agent locations in more than 200 countries and territories, anytime and anywhere. Customers can pay for their transactions within the app using a choice of card or account, and also have the unique option to pay in-person at retail. 

Singapore is a major hub for money movement and is the fourth largest remitter in Asia after Hong Kong, Japan and Malaysia– remitting more than USD6.1 billion last year, according to a report by IFAD titled RemitSCOPE – Remittance markets and opportunities – Asia and the Pacific¹. It is propelled largely by its international standing as a popular international labour market for professionals, offering both high and low skill employment opportunities. According to the Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2018² rankings by INSEAD, Singapore ranks first in the region and second globally in attracting and developing talent. In addition, its citizens enjoy familial connections to nearly every country in the world. Last year Western Union moved money into 175 countries from Singapore.

“We are delighted to introduce online money transfers in Singapore, where a high level of digital connectivity has offered consumers boundless possibilities to integrate mobile usage across various aspects of their daily lives. In addition to enjoying seamless digital money movement via the Western Union mobile app, we have also integrated the option for customers to commence their transaction within the app and pay for the transaction in person at retail,” said Odilon Almeida, President, Western Union Global Money Transfer.

The capabilities of our platform today give us an unrivalled advantage – a fully seamless digital offering or a hybrid of online and off-line. This multi-channel capability utilizes our growing international bank and wallet payout network and further monetizes our iconic retail network. It positions us favourably, to serve a global customer base with diverse preferences, like no other,” Almeida said.

Western Union has provided money transfer service in Singapore for more than 15 years. Agent locations across the country offer customers the opportunity to send and receive money in person, from all major cities including small towns in remote areas.

According to the Singapore Economic Development Board³, Singapore is already well on its way to attaining the benefits of digitization, thanks to the leadership of the Singapore government and the technological maturity of its citizens, which has enabled the nation to readily adopt new strategies for delivering more efficient and effective services. With the initiation of the Smart Nation⁴ programme, Singapore plans to drive adoption of digital and smart technologies across the country.

WU-G

CUSTOMER GUIDANCE

In line with Monetary Authority of Singapore regulations, prior to the first use of the online service and the app, customers are required to register on the app. A verification email will be sent to the registered email/phone number. Once confirmed, the customer can proceed to enter his personal details and valid ID details. Acceptable IDs include National Registration Identity Cards (NRIC), passports and driving licenses. Customers can then proceed to verify their ID and details through video chat with an agent or verify in-person at a Western Union Agent location. Upon receipt of an email confirmation of their successful account verification and activation, Western Union customers can conveniently send money anytime, with a few clicks from their mobile phones.

In addition to the convenience and reliability of sending money anytime, the app (available for iOS and Android users) enables customers to estimate fees and foreign exchange rates for online money transfers, track past and pending transactions, show payout options available in the receivers’ country, and provide round-the-clock customer service.

Customers can learn more on the app, or by calling the Singapore hotline: +65 6336 2000 (for calls within Singapore), or writing an email to SingaporeEnglish.customer@westernunion.com (for support in English) or to SingaporeMandarin.customer@westernunion.com (for support in Chinese), or in person at over 70 Western Union Agent locations across the country.

KnowBe4, the provider of the world’s largest security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, today announced it has launched a new platform called PhishER that helps security teams analyse, prioritise and manage email that has been reported as suspect by employees. With PhishER, security teams can identify the most dangerous threats more quickly and efficiently. The platform also helps security teams quickly process the emails that were reported as suspicious but are actually legitimate and need to be processed by the employee.

“Security teams can spend hours, days, even weeks prioritising email messages that are reported to them,” said Stu Sjouwerman, CEO, KnowBe4. “PhishER automates the process, speeding it up immensely. This platform is a massive value-add to our current offerings and is a huge time-saver for security teams. PhishER will revolutionise the way security teams handle email threats reported by users and help them meet their Service Level Agreements.”

Phishing remains the most widely used cyber-attack vector. With the firehose of spam and malicious email that attacks networks, some 10 to 15 per cent of these threats make it past email filters. Organisations that have trained their users through new-school security awareness training—which includes simulated phishing tests—and have armed them with the free KnowBe4 Phish Alert Button can still run into problems accurately identifying a spam email versus a phishing email or other type of malicious email.

Many of those emails are reported by users to incident response teams and require review as quickly as possible. Since each message requires some level of analysis and possible human intervention to prioritise, organisations with limited incident response teams need a more simple and effective way to respond to and mitigate these reported messages.

With only approximately one in ten user-reported emails being verified as actually malicious in some form, it is important to handle the phishing attacks and threats—and just as important—effectively manage the other 90 percent of user-reported messages accurately and efficiently.

Incident response orchestration can easily deliver immediate efficiencies to a security team. With the right strategy and planning, an organisation can build a fully orchestrated and intelligent SOC that can contend with today’s threats. PhishER is a critical element to help incident response teams work together to mitigate the phishing threat.

For more information on Phish ER, please visit https://www.knowbe4.com/products/phisher  To request a demo of Phish ER, please contactsales@knowbe4.com.