Responsibility for information security is not falling to any one senior executive function, according to the 2018 Risk:Value report from NTT Security, the specialised security company of NTT Group, which surveyed 1,800 senior decision makers from non-IT functions in global organisations.

At a global level, 22 per cent of respondents believe the CIO is ‘ultimately responsible’ for managing security, compared to one in five (20 per cent) for the CEO and 19 per cent for the CISO. In the UK, fewer respondents point to the CIO (19 per cent) and CISO (18 per cent) while the CEO gets the biggest vote at 21 per cent. The US (27 per cent) and Norway (26 per cent) buck the trend with more than a quarter of respondents suggesting the CEO is responsible, while in Singapore, one third say it is the role of the CISO – the highest figure across all 12 countries. Interestingly, around one in ten people in Switzerland believe the CFO is responsible for security.

“Responsibility for day-to-day security doesn’t seem to fall on any one particular person’s shoulders among our response base,” says Azeem Aleem, VP Consulting & UK&I Lead, NTT Security. “This narrow gap between the roles of CIO, CEO and CISO shows that no one executive function is stepping up to the plate. It could be a sign of unclear separation between the CIO and CISO though, as often they are the same or collaborate closely. 

"On the other hand, should we be concerned that the CEO is not more involved in security matters, given the potentially damaging affects to the business, or should we be relieved that they are not managing a specialist task like this over and above other critical corporate responsibilities. The question is where do you draw the line?”

According to the 2018 Risk:Value report, although more people see the need for regular boardroom discussions about security, their organisations are failing to raise it sufficiently at the C-suite level. While 80 per cent of all survey respondents agree that preventing a security attack should be a regular boardroom agenda item (up from 73 per cent in last year’s report) only 61 per cent say that it is, an increase of just 5 per cent on last year.

Data security poor due to lack of cohesion at the top

NTT Security’s report also suggests that this lack of cohesion at the top of the organisation means that many are struggling to secure their most important digital assets. Fewer than half (48 per cent) of respondents globally – 53 per cent in the UK – say they have fully secured all of their critical data. But with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) now fully in effect, this is no longer an opportunity, but mandatory.

However, companies are beginning to take control of their data as cloud computing best practices mature. Around a quarter (27 per cent) report that the majority of their organisation’s data is currently stored on premise or in data centres (25 per cent). However, in 12 months’ time, a similar proportion (25 per cent) of respondents say that it will be stored in a cloud environment.

GlobalPlatform, the standard for secure digital services and devices, has released version 2.3.1 of its Card / Secure Element (SE) Specification. The release supports the latest extensions of GlobalPlatform technology following widespread deployments in consumer and machine-to-machine (M2M) devices. 100% of the 1 billion SEs embedded in smartphones in the last three years are GlobalPlatform-certified and more than 5.5 billion GlobalPlatform-certified SEs were produced in 2017. 

Enhanced SE & App Management

Amendment I – the SE Management Service – and an extension to Amendment F – the Secure Channel Protocol 11 – enable important changes to the deployment of applications and digital services to SEs. 

“Secure apps and services now need to be provisioned to thousands, if not millions of SEs,” comments Gil Bernabeu, Technical Director of GlobalPlatform. “Previously, service providers have connected to each SE to perform functions like the installation of a security domain, or to load and personalize applets. This can take time and requires a constant connection. These amendments allow service providers to create and load a single package into an app store for multiple end-users to download. This not only simplifies life for service providers and reduces load on their servers, it makes secure apps more readily available to end-users.”

Simplified secure applet updates

Amendment H – the Executable Load File Upgrade simplifies and streamlines the process of updating personalized applets on a SE. The traditional approach requires the old software to be deleted before the new one can be installed and re-personalized. Amendment H securely stores the personalized information and installs the new program code before automatically re-personalizing the applet.

“The adoption and deployment of specifications in the real world bring opportunities into focus and these enhancements bring a range of benefits to device makers, service providers and end-users. Much of this work enables the ecosystem to interact and collaborate more efficiently when deploying and managing digital services, regardless of the device type or use case. And all of this is achieved while maintaining security and privacy,” adds Gil.

GlobalPlatform’s next priority will be the publication of its Secure Element Configuration for Authentication Devices to simplify the deployment of SEs within tailormade authentication devices and peripherals.

Citi has today announced the launch of its Multi-Currency Notional Pooling Capabilities in the Netherlands. 

Citi has existing Multi-Currency Notional Pooling capabilities in London for its multi-national clients. By setting up capabilities in Amsterdam, Citi is now giving its clients choice and flexibility to enable them to better manage their working capital and liquidity according to their treasury models and needs.

Notional Pooling in Amsterdam allows Citi’s clients to minimize bank interest costs by notionally concentrating end of day balances across multiple accounts held with Citibank Europe plc, Netherlands Branch, into a single net amount. Citi’s clients will be able to achieve substantial liquidity, financial and operational benefits by automating the funding process, reducing bank interest costs and more efficiently using cash in their network.

The Amsterdam offering will support major global and European currencies and is built on Citi’s strategic Global Notional Pooling platform that will continue to be invested in and enhanced.

The solution can be utilized together with recently launched Citi® Virtual Accounts, which allows clients to segregate their balances under a single physical account, providing enhanced visibility, control and efficiencies through centralized payments, receivables and liquidity management.

Mark Smith, Global Head of Liquidity Management Services, Treasury and Trade Solutions, Citi, says: “The Netherlands is becoming an increasingly important global pooling location as we look to expand on the number of notional pooling centres globally. This new offering will provide our global clients with further optionality to match their treasury models.”  

Zdenek Turek, CEO of Citibank Europe plc, adds: “The launch of Multi-Currency Notional Pooling capability in our Netherlands branch is in line with Citi’s strategy to offer full cash management capabilities from our single EU bank that has a physical presence across 22 countries in Europe and offers connectivity to Citi’s global network.”

 Signicat, a leader in verified digital identity and electronic signature solutions, has been granted the status of Qualified Trust Service Provider (QTSP) by the Norwegian communications authority, NKOM. With this status, Signicat becomes one of the few companies that can use the EU Trustmark, and is now part of the EU Trustlist.

QTSP status is defined by internal procedures meeting the strict standards defined by eIDAS regulation and is audited by an external body, in this case the British Standards Institute (BSI). Having satisfied the external auditors and also met the approval of NKOM, Signicat can now use the EU Trustmark to indicate that it meets the standards demanded by the EU, and delivers the highest levels of security and quality of service.

Signicat QTSP status is specifically due to being Qualified Time Stamp Authority, enabling digital documents to be certified as existing at a certain point of time, without the possibility of backdating. This means that the authenticity of digital documents certified by Signicat can be trusted for even the most sensitive of uses. Time stamping is an essential part of document preservation, ensuring that documents can be validated and known to have existed at a particular time—not just now, but far into the future.

“We’re delighted to have our hard work and expertise recognised by both the auditors and the communications authority,” said John Erik Setsaas, VP of Identity and Innovation, Signicat. “The EU Trustmark lets our customers know at a glance that we meet the very high standards laid down by the EU, and that we can help to build mutual digital trust with the consumers they serve.”

Signicat’s status as a QTSP follows its announcement last month that it has joined the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), the recognised standards body for electronic communications.

Wolters Kluwer’s Finance, Risk & Reporting (FRR) business will be sharing its integrated regulatory compliance and reporting expertise at this week’s Singapore FinTech Festival – the world’s largest FinTech event. The annual event, which is organized by The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in partnership with The Association of Banks in Singapore, will be held at the Singapore Expo Exhibition and Convention Centre and is expected to attract more than 30,000 delegates.

Wolters Kluwer will be exhibiting at the conference (Booth 2A24) as well as sharing its Regulatory Technology (RegTech) and Supervisory Technology (SupTech) insights in a dedicated panel debate on Wednesday, November 14^th. 

Guest speakers at the highly anticipated event include Christine Lagarde (Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund), Cassie Kozyrkov (Chief Decision Scientist for Google) and Mary Ellen Iskenderian (President and CEO of Women’s World Banking). 

Wouter Delbaere, Regulatory Reporting Director, Asia Pacific (APAC), for Wolters Kluwer FRR, will chair the RegTech and SupTech panel. The session will explore the future for compliance, risk and finance given regulators’ demand for growing datasets with more meaningful data assurance, in an environment of increased competition requiring deeper business insight. He will be joined on the Cloud Stage by Steve Hostettler, Global Technology Director for Wolters Kluwer FRR, who will be examining the trends and transformations that will be impacting financial institutions into the next decade, including the role of Artificial Intelligence in the move to transaction-level reporting and machine-executable regulation. These Wolters Kluwer experts will also be joined by senior representatives from Microsoft and PwC. 

“As banks continue to address the ever increasing complexity and granularity of national and global reporting requirements, RegTech allows them the agility to adopt an integrated approach to finance, risk and regulatory reporting. This will ultimately allow the banks that adopt this integrated approach to become highly competitive businesses that have greater command of their commercial and supervisory environments,” commented Rainer Fuchsluger, Managing Director for Wolters Kluwer’s Finance, Risk & Reporting business in the APAC region. “Wolters Kluwer’s OneSumX for Regulatory Reporting, Risk and Finance allows our clients to automate reporting in a manner which not only meets external compliance requirements, but also generates greater transparency internally, allowing for reduction of regulatory risk as well as enhanced management of information. We are incredibly excited to be able to share our expertise and once again support this major event organized by MAS.”

Wolters Kluwer FRR’s Finance, Risk & Reporting business, which is part of Wolters Kluwer’s Governance, Risk & Compliance division, is a global market leader in the provision of integrated regulatory compliance and reporting solutions. These solutions support regulated financial institutions in meeting their obligations to external regulators and their own boards of directors. The business receives frequent independent recognition of its excellence and innovation. Notably, in July 2018, Risk magazine awarded Wolters Kluwer FRR 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. Both awards celebrate success in the field globally.

Leading financial services firms from across the world have implemented the company’s award winning OneSumX solution for integrated Regulatory Reporting, Risk and Finance. Major financial services providers, active in APAC, that have recently announced their use of Wolters Kluwer solutions include ABN AMRO, SME Development Bank Malaysia Berhad, China Merchants Bank, China Everbright Bank, LGT and Land Bank of Taiwan.

Coleman Research, a leading global provider of primary research, today announced the launch of Coleman Exchange, a cloud-based software platform that helps research providers and the buy-side manage key aspects of the research interactions life-cycle.  With Coleman Exchange, users can use the platform for marketing availability, scheduling, managing subscriptions, and invoicing for analyst access and meetings.  The platform also provides entitlements management and produces real-time reports which fully capture the consumption of subscription terms. 

Coleman Exchange enables users to meet compliance, audit and reporting requirements and ensures analysts only interact with approved counterparts, delivering full control over access to research interactions. It is based on the proven technology platform used by Coleman Research to provide hundreds of thousands of Expert research interactions to buy- and sell-side institutions. 

“The investment research landscape is undergoing a significant transformation, with MiFID II driving market structure changes that have far reaching effects beyond Europe and are impacting how institutional investors across the globe access and consume research,” said Kevin Coleman, CEO of Coleman Research. “As a long-time facilitator of investment research to hundreds of investment management firms, Coleman is well placed to provide sell-side firms with a comprehensive set of tools to help them quickly and efficiently respond to the challenges associated with unbundling of research services.”

Coleman Exchange connects Coleman’s extensive community of buy-side end users with a growing number of research analysts on a single platform, making it easier for sell-side members to market their Analysts, track interactions, and demonstrate added value.   In addition to an intuitive user interface, the platform’s capabilities can easily be integrated with existing systems, including Outlook, Salesforce, and business intelligence applications.  

In the last two years, technologists and storytellers have struggled to explain blockchain in simple terms that everyone can understand.  At its core, blockchain is a digital ledger of transactions.  Just like bookkeepers once used bound, paper based ledgers to log transactions and reconcile accounts. organizations can now use blockchain technology to build and manage a digital ledger, transact business and collaborate with partners in a secure manner.  Even though it is that simple, I find that with all the hype around blockchain, people are still struggling to understand what it is and the basic benefits.

During Oracle OpenWorld 2018, Ghassan Sarsak, Chief Technology & Innovation Officer, ICS Financial Systems Limited took to the stage to discuss blockchain in the banking industry. Mr. Sarsak and the team at ICS Financial Systems (ICSFS) recently completed a successful blockchain PoC at Arab Jordan Investment Bank. 

Before beginning his presentation, Mr. Sarsak offered one of the best explanations of blockchain and its benefits that I have ever heard. Mr. Sarsak advised attendees to think of a blockchain "like a family."  Here's what he said to explain blockchain and make it easy to understand.

“I would like to start with something far away from technology, but in the end it's related. This picture...there’s nothing unique about it. But any idea what this is? Can anyone guess what this is? A chain?

I see it from my point of view as a family chain.  What I mean by this is family members, they trust each other and protect each other’s back. They share the same blood. No guests are allowed in without the formal agreement of all family members. So true family members, they keep private information within the family. It's data privacy. What happens in a family stays in the family?  They update each other with all information. Like data privacy, they protect each other's information so they can protect each other and make each other's house secure. So this is the family chain.  It is the blockchain. From my point of view, blockchain is all about security, efficiency and data privacy.  It has to enhance our life. It has to enhance the processes we are using in the banking industry, and in several industries,” noted Ghassan Sarsak, Chief Technology & Innovation Officer, ICS Financial Systems Limited.

ION, the largest global provider of trading, analytics and risk management solutions for capital markets, commodities and treasury management, announces that its customer, the global logistics leader United Parcel Service (UPS), is winner of the 2018 EuroFinance Treasury Excellence Award for Technology Implementation.

The annual EuroFinance Awards recognize companies that have applied new technology successfully to a core treasury problem, and delivered genuine value to the business through innovation.

The solution deployed by UPS is ION's Reval treasury management solution, chosen for the flexibility, scalability and cost-effectiveness that only a SaaS TMS can offer; through its partnership with Fides, delivers integrated, multi-bank connectivity as well.

Eli Brown, UPS Treasury Process Controller said, "With Reval and Fides in place, we have central treasury control of all processes. Data flows through Fides into Reval, eliminating the need for multiple complex spreadsheets and manually compiled data. Now we get current day statements every 30 minutes. That gives the treasury team almost real-time insight into what the balance is, and enables them to concentrate cash in the most effective way possible."

Patrick Cannon, EVP of Reval and Treasura at ION Treasury said, "The EuroFinance award is well deserved recognition of the way UPS is leveraging Reval in the cloud. With Reval, it has upped its treasury operations game, putting in place a platform that reduces risk, enhances decision-making, and ensures that regulatory compliance can be achieved and proven."

ION Treasury serves more than 1,300 clients in nearly three dozen countries. Market-leading products include Wallstreet Suite, Openlink, Reval, IT2, ITS, City Financials, and Treasura, satisfying the needs of companies of any size, budget, and IT capability.