Paybase CEO Anna Tsyupko has been announced as a speaker of the MoneyLive Summit 2018, starting on 26th November in London. The event is Europe’s biggest retail banking event, with hundreds of attendees representing dozens of financial services. 

Promising to be an inspiring meeting of minds, MoneyLive will bring together incumbents and challengers, covering themes such as the future of FinTech and the new payments landscape. Anna commented: “Paybase is very excited to be speaking at this year’s MoneyLive. We’re proud of the impact we’re having on the world of FinTech and MoneyLive is a great way to showcase that - we’re looking forward to many interesting conversations with businesses that Paybase can help!

Paybase is the most flexible payments solution for platform businesses, specialising in providing sophisticated payment flows that other providers cannot. It has been recognised by Wired and Real Business as a company set to revolutionise finance and is a Fintech Power50 winner. 

If you would like to hear more from Anna, she will be available to answer questions after her talk at 11:55. Register your attendance for MoneyLive via their website https://new.marketforce.eu.com/money-live/events/summit/

Temenos (SIX: TEMN), the banking software company, today announced that it has won the "Prize of the Geneva Economy 2018”. The Geneva Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services (CCIG) created this award in 2012 with the aim to promote and enhance the Geneva economic network and to recognize companies whose reputation and influence have helped promote a positive and dynamic image of Geneva. 

The CCIG, the state of Geneva and the Office for the Promotion of Industries and Technologies (OPI) presented the award to Temenos during a ceremony held on the 22 November in Geneva.

Established in Geneva in 1993, Temenos has more than 5000 employees globally, including 120 in Switzerland; Three of the five members of its executive committee are also based in Switzerland. With over 3000 clients in over 150 countries including major Swiss banks such as Credit Suisse and Julius Baer the Temenos vision is to provide banks and financial institutions of all sizes, anywhere in the world the software to thrive in the digital banking age. 

Max Chuard Chief Financial and Chief Operating Officer – Temenos, said:“It is a great honor to receive the 2018 Geneva Economy Award. Setting up our headquarters in Geneva was an obvious choice as it has many strengths including world-class quality of service, deep banking expertise and a truly international and multicultural environment. These are very exciting times for Temenos as we help to transform the banking industry and we look forward to continuing to contribute to the Geneva and Swiss Economy”.

New York and London: We are pleased to announce that OpenFin won the Editor’s choice award for ‘FinTech of the Year’ at the Leaders in Trading Awards 2018 held at the Savoy Hotel, in London on Thursday, 22nd November.

Hosted by The Trade, the Leaders in Trading Awards recognise trading talent at hedge funds, asset managers, banks and brokers, in addition to honouring top buy-side traders and others through the editor’s choice and innovation categories.  

OpenFin won the ‘FinTech of the Year’ award as a result of making the greatest strides over the past 12 months in using technology to drive innovation, to bring new technologies to market, encourage successful market collaboration, disrupt outdated technology ideas and change the industry for the better.

The OpenFin operating system (OS) is being used by banks, asset managers, hedge funds and brokers to power their digital transformation strategies and modernise slow, inefficient and complicated software deployment processes. OpenFin provides the fintech community with a common OS on which they can collaborate, build and securely deploy new and updated applications quickly and efficiently, directly onto permissioned desktops.

Increasing the speed of innovation and delivery, with OpenFin end-users can more quickly and easily access the very latest applications.

Adam Toms, CEO of OpenFin Europe, said: “We’re thrilled to be named ‘FinTech of the Year’. It’s been an amazing 12 months and our team have done an incredible job, we’re closing the year with a platform that is now being used to build and deploy more than 1,000 applications to 1,500 major banks and buy-side firms located across 60+ countries. It’s great to be part of a company that is truly changing the status-quo, by removing the barriers to entry for fintech companies and helping major financial services firms transform their products and services.”

Mazy Dar, Global CEO and Co-Founder of OpenFin, said: “We have been nothing but impressed by the level of support from our customers and partners over the last year.  The industry is truly embracing a moment of change enabled by our technology and we are proud to be at the centre of driving a new experience on financial services desktops.”

easyCoffee, the coffee chain launched by CEO and entertainment entrepreneur Nathan Lowry and easyJet tycoon Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, has forged an alliance with London based Yoyo, Europe’s fastest growing mobile payments and loyalty marketing platform, to provide a new app-based payments and loyalty solution for its customers, as both companies rapidly expand across the UK.

YES BANK, India’s 4th largest private sector bank announced that it has completed a first-of-its-kind digital transaction with Welspun Global Brands Limited (WGBL) – a subsidiary of Welspun India Limited, in the form of e-Presentation, involving end-to-end electronic presentation of export documents.

Distributed ledger technology has become an important topic around the world. Uncountable projects have been launched and are still setting foot in the business world. There are many different areas of application: starting with cryptocurrencies, to accounting and voting or even energy supply.

On January 21, 2019 the Blockchain Forum brings together experts, thought leaders and professionals in distributed ledger technology for the third time in Zurich. A great variety of presentations and discussions ensure that everyone’s needs and challenges are met.  

Since blockchain is a technology without borders, both national and international financial market regulations of cryptocurrencies have to be taken into account as well as the financial market legal framework in Switzerland. At the Blockchain Forum ways will be shown how to reduce and avoid high volatility in cryptocurrencies. Moreover, a variety of exciting business applications will be presented, as blockchain is more than only cryptocurrencies. Leading questions of the conference are: Is the blockchain the right tool for the business ideas of a company and how can those blockchain projects be implemented? Through select success stories from corporates, e.g. Car Dossier, and the public sector the latest experiences from practitioners will be highlighted.

For further information, visit www.blockchain-forum.net/en/agenda

Press Contact: Vereon AG | Public Relations | Hauptstrasse 54 | CH-8280 Kreuzlingen presse@vereon.ch | www.vereon.ch/presse

 Already today banks are operating in a totally new financial services landscape and for that, they need to check and possibly adapt their business models. Open Banking is rated as one of the most important trends in banking and there are different aspects which deserve a closer look. With strong legal regulations, a variety of APIs, data protection, to name just a few challenges, it is not easy to establish the right strategy. The question is what role the financial institutions in the newly developing constellation want to play and of course which aims third-party providers strive for. 

For the third time the Open Banking Forum is the leading Swiss event that brings together experts, thought leaders and professionals in banking innovations. The next Open Banking Forum will be held in Zurich on January 22, 2019. A great variety of presentations and discussions ensure everyone’s needs and challenges will be met.

High level speakers will talk about international projects concerning Open Banking worldwide trends, different APIs, access-to-account, FinTech innovations in the Baltics, Corporate culture and mindset change to succeed. 

For further information, visit www.openbanking-forum.ch/en/agenda

Press Contact: Vereon AG | Public Relations | Hauptstrasse 54 | CH-8280 Kreuzlingen presse@vereon.ch | www.vereon.ch/presse

HCL Technologies (HCL), a leading global technology company, has been identified as a Leader and Star Performer in the Global Banking Application Services PEAK Matrix™ Assessment 2018 by Everest Group. HCL has been named a Leader for the fourth consecutive year in the Banking Application Services PEAK Matrix assessment and a “Star Performer” for the second time after 2015.

The company has been assessed high for both ‘vision and capabilities’ as well as ‘market impact’ for its double digit growth in Banking Application Services, strong presence in growing markets like Asia Pacific, ability to support clients through investments in co-innovation labs, investment in talent and solution accelerators. HCL’s go-to-market powered by its FENIX framework, an approach that is Forward‐thinking, Engineering‐driven, Nextgen‐focused, Innovative, and E‐Xperience‐centric along with its flexibility in operating and commercial models were highlighted as its key strengths by Everest Group.

“Receiving this award underscores our commitment to drive high-value client centricity for next-gen banking,” said Rahul Singh, President and Global Head of Financial Services for HCL Technologies. “Our goal is to leverage technologies like AI and robotics along with our innovation labs to help customers launch new products and create differentiated user experiences. Simultaneously, we are bringing a renewed focus to regulatory compliance and rationalizing and converging IT and operations across business divisions.”

“Evolving consumer demands, competition from digital native firms, and a digital talent gap puts stress on banks to execute digital initiatives at speed and scale. To manage these roadblocks, banks need partners that can run business in a cost optimized model, guide banks on their transformation journeys, manage the complexity of the innovation ecosystem, and bring differentiated skills,” said Jimit Arora, Partner at Everest Group. “Significant scale up in existing accounts, multiple new client wins, and clients recognizing the value delivered in engagements helped HCL demonstrate superior market success. HCL strengthened its value proposition through investments in innovation labs, partnerships, talent, and solutions to position itself as a Star Performer and a Leader on the 2018 Everest Group Banking Application Services PEAK Matrix^TM.”

For future-ready financial services organizations, HCL offers smart, next–generation digital technologies, allowing companies address the need of the hour and stay ahead of the game. HCL is investing in FinTechs, APIs, application modernization, and cognitive computing to facilitate this transition. DRYiCE, an autonomics and orchestration framework, drives efficiency for the banking sector by automating both standard and nonstandard tasks.

As a long-term and transformation partner to Fortune 500 financial Services and banking clients across the globe, HCL provides end to end Digital, Engineering, Applications, Infrastructure and Business services across multiple domains in BFSI including Asset and Wealth Management, Retail Banking, Corporate Banking, Cards & Payments, lending and risk functions.

For the purpose of the study, Everest Group assessed and analysed 25 IT service providers featured on the application services in Global banking PEAK Matrix™. The assessment is based on Everest Group’s annual RFI process for the calendar year 2018, interactions with leading service providers, client reference checks, and analysis of the Global banking Application services market.

Dexter the Digital Tax Advisor has been unveiled by Xero, the accounting software platform – to help accountants and small businesses prepare for one of the biggest changes to UK business tax in decades - Making Tax Digital.

From April 2019, every VAT-registered business above the £85k threshold will be required by law to go digital and file their tax through Making Tax Digital (MTD) compatible cloud software. Before then, over a million small businesses need to get ready. But with less than five months to go before the legislation is introduced, research has found that fewer than half of the UK’s accountants (43 per cent) feel prepared for the change.

Commissioned by Xero, the cartoon series has been created by the Oscar-nominated artistic duo Alison Snowden and David Fine, with a short teaser revealed to a crowd of around 3,000 accountants and bookkeepers at Xerocon London this week.

The animated series of short films starring Dexter the Digital Tax Advisor will be released in the lead-up to the MTD for VAT kick-off date. The character has been launched to concentrate minds ahead of the shake-up, showing accountants and businesses how easy it is to make the switch to digital. Given that tax has historically been viewed of us a highly tedious task, Dexter’s mission is to highlight the benefits in efficiency and offer peace of mind in the months ahead and beyond.

Of the 200 accountants and bookkeepers surveyed, almost half 45 per cent were unaware of the penalties for non-compliance, which will be points-based and carry a charge after four late submissions.

Despite fewer than half of accountants being prepared for the change, almost one third (30 per cent) of those surveyed said they expect digital tax to increase their firm’s productivity, with 51 per cent admitting that online software is already improving collaboration with clients, as well as increasing speed (46 per cent) and reducing the amount of errors to fix (28 per cent).

When it comes to small business owners, one quarter (25 per cent) admitted they are completely unaware of the upcoming legislation. The research comes as HMRC has issued 20,000 letters to small business owners informing them of the upcoming change, requiring businesses to make a significant change to the way they submit their VAT returns from April 2019.  

The research also found that almost a fifth (18 per cent) of accountants think their clients are concerned by the amount of extra time they will need to spend doing tax returns once MTD for VAT begins. However, the data reveals that accountants expect VAT returns to reduce by 6.42 hours a week by using cloud accounting and submitting VAT returns digitally. This in turn frees up more administration time for firms to spend on higher-level advisory services, which Xero’s separate Benchmarking Report has found can increase firm revenue by 12 per cent on average, as opposed to the UK average of 3 per cent.

Dexter the Digital Tax Advisor launches as Xero announces it is officially ready for Making Tax Digital as well as thousands of Xero accounting partners. As a HMRC approved supplier for Making Tax Digital for VAT, Xero’s new VAT functionality is now in public beta and is completely compatible for Making Tax Digital for businesses over the VAT threshold.

Damon Anderson, Director of Partner and Product at Xero says: “Making Tax Digital is going to usher in a new era of accountancy, encouraging the technology adoption and working practices to bring the profession into the 21st century. Our data has shown that there are huge numbers of small businesses who still feel unprepared for the legislation, so we’ve created Dexter the Digital Tax Advisor to be the voice of Making Tax Digital for VAT and help accountants and small businesses on their digital journey and make tax less taxing.

MTD is just the start of technological innovation for the world of accountancy. It’s going to drive widespread adoption of digital technology, introducing new innovations, such as AI and automation. And at the core of this, we’ll see accountants experiencing a technological and cultural shift, in which paper and outdated desktop software will be replaced with the latest digital technology equipped to evolve with new legislation.”

For further information on Making Tax Digital for VAT visit Xero's Making Tax Digital hub.