Innovative cloud accounting provider FreeAgent has agreed a new partnership with an ambitious new practice backed by two of the leading names in the UK accounting industry.

FreeAgent has joined forces with Alchemy Accountancy - a new venture backed by Nixon Williams founders Alan Williams and Andy Nixon - in order to help support small business owners and help them navigate the forthcoming Making Tax Digital (MTD) legislation. 

By branching out to freelance and small business clients, Alchemy is aiming to disrupt traditional accountancy models favoured by many larger practices. The firm intends to provide its clients with a more personal service that enables them to collaborate more easily with their accountants - which it believes will boost its growth as the government’s digital tax agenda comes into effect. |

Craig McCall, Director at Alchemy Accountancy, said: “MTD will be a major change for the accountancy industry, not just in terms of client compliance but also for new growth opportunities. Many small businesses will soon fall under the legislation and will therefore to be looking for accountants to help them deal with the changes when the come into effect - and we want to be best-placed to meet this demand.

“Rather than the ‘factory line’, one-size-fits-all approach that some larger accountancy firms offer, Alchemy aims to give every small business owner a service that is tailored specifically to their individual needs. This was a vision that really resonated with Alan and Andy and was a key reason why they decided to re-enter the accountancy market.

Their enthusiasm and experience will be vital to the success of Alchemy, and we’re all looking forward to growing the business during the evolution of the UK’s digital tax system in the years ahead.”

Ed Molyneux, CEO and co-founder of FreeAgent, added: “We’re delighted that Alchemy Accountancy has decided to partner with FreeAgent and offer our software to their clients. It is a very forward-thinking firm with an ambitious vision for the future, so we look forward to working closely with Craig and his team in the future.”

SmartStream Technologies, the financial Transaction Lifecycle Management (TLM^®) solutions provider, today announced the launch of TLM Aurora, the next generation of Corona, the industry’s leading reconciliation platform – the first new module is designed to support the new industry standards in the digital payments world, by providing connectors to SWIFT GPI, RTGS, as well as Blockchain based networks, allowing for real-time operational control, proactive exception management and low TCO.

TLM Aurora provides the new generation of integrated operational control for the digital marketplace. As transactions increase in variability, velocity and volume, the need for scalable, real-time, integrated reconciliations is greater than ever. TLM Aurora supports organisations in performing operations such as SWIFT and SEPA transfers, mobile, cash and card payments, digital currencies, settlements and reconciliations. The solution is agile enough to support the smallest of organisations and can be scaled with the growth of the business.

An intuitive analytics layer, TLM View, allows real-time MIS and in-depth reporting to the transaction level. Organisations can search and retrieve payment transactions regardless of its origin, geography or source systems via the Integrated Advanced Payments layer. In addition, Integrated Trade Process Management enables asset managers to manage their multi-class trade operations both internally and externally.

Open Banking and Instant Payments are game changers in the industry with increasingly complex transactions with a variety of unprecedented requirements for reconciliations, exception handling, and cash and liquidity management reporting. Regulators and central banks will mandate banks and new non-bank players (e.g. as licensed under PSD2) to comply with international and domestic regulations.

Haytham Kaddoura, CEO, states: “TLM Aurora is far more than just an upgrade. It is the result of years of R&D at SmartStream with valuable insight and intelligence from our clients and partners. As digital transformation accelerates, it will become even more important that banks have control processes in place that link to existing infrastructures via a single solution. TLM Aurora has been discussed with several banks and the need to focus on data is key to intuitively leverage data discovery, data modelling and data simulation. Additionally, the importance of liquidity management, reporting to the regulators and future cash flows are critical to any bank on a daily basis”.

On December 6, the international company Smile-Expo will conduct the second Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Philippines, a large-scale event about DLT and cryptocurrencies. The conference will gather top industry experts who will talk about the relevant issues regarding the technology.

Why the Philippines?

Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference returns to Manila for the second time as the Philippines has a big potential for DLT development.

The country has an established Blockchain Association of the Philippines (BAP), which aims at educating the population about the technology and connecting crypto businesses to enhance further innovations.

More than that, Philippines’ Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) has already given licenses to 19 different crypto exchanges. One of the DLT-based companies is an advanced crypto payment app – Coins.ph.

What is Waiting for Guests at the Conference?

The event will be visited by technology developers, entrepreneurs, investors and miners. Among the participants, there will be representatives of the leading organizations and top industry specialists.

Speakers

Professionals in the DLT sector will deliver presentations on the main issues regarding the crypto sphere.

The event will be attended by Arvie de Vera, the Head of Fintech Business Group at UnionBank of the Philippines. The financial organization is one of the largest banks in the country. It has already integrated DLT into different internal processes and plans to expand technological applications.

The speakers will also include James Florentino, CEO at MergeCommit – a company that plans to become the first DLT-based organization in Southeast Asia by 2025.

Lito Villanueva, Chairman at FinTechAlliance.ph – a collaboration of digital finance experts who plan to improve the country’s economy, will talk during the conference.

Luis Buenaventura, CTO of BloomSolutions, will emphasize topical DLT issues in his presentation as well. His company allows its clients to transform remittance business in a unique way. Its total volume processed since inception has exceeded $125,000,000 as of March 2018, making it one of the most successful DLT remittance startups in the world.

The event will also be joined by the Business Owner at crypto wallet provider Tagcash – Mark Vernon.

The conference’s program will also feature the panel discussion where professionals will talk about smart and legal contracts. One of the discussion’s participants will be Rafael Padilla who has been one of the founders of BAP.

Exhibition Area and Pitch Sessions

Innovative developments will be presented in the exhibition area. Visitors will have a chance to discover new mining hardware, crypto payments solutions and DLT-based apps.

Startups will get a unique opportunity to find investments, as they will share ideas and introduce their brands during the pitch sessions. The most interesting initiative will get the capital for further development of the project.

Event’s guests will be able to find new business partners to cooperate in the future. They can use this opportunity during networking.

Results of the Previous Event in the Philippines

The first Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Philippines was attended by 300 visitors, and 12 top companies introduced their projects.

Professionals from major corporations delivered speeches. Business Group Lead at Microsoft Philippines, Herns Hermida, was among them.

The unique feature of the event was the focus on DLT applications apart from financial sphere. Experts discussed technology’s integration into business, marketing and government.

Organizer

The event will be coordinated by Smile-Expo, an organizer of 47 successful Blockchain & Bitcoin Conferences in 25 countries.

More information about the event and registration are on the official website of the conference.

Following the introduction of QR-code payment in more than 71,000 taxis in Seoul, all taxis in Seoul will accept Alipay beginning in January 2019.

Alipay, the world’s largest online and mobile payment platform, operated by Ant Financial Services Group, can be used by Chinese tourists to pay for taxis in Seoul via its strategic partner kakaopay, which acts as system integrator. In the near future, local users will also be able to pay taxi fare via kakaopay.

Alipay has been collaborating with kakaopay, a Korean mobile payment service, to further promote mobile payment services in the country. Last year, Ant Financial Services Group formed a strategic partnership with kakaopay. Since then, both Alipay and kakaopay have been working to integrate with all partner merchants in Korea. Earlier, Alipay enabled its payment service for taxis in the Pyeongchang and Gangneung areas where the Winter Olympics were hosted in February. 

Presently, Alipay is accepted by taxis in more than 15 countries and regions for Chinese users around the world, including China, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, the U.S., Italy and Australia. Alipay is now available in more than 90% of taxis in primary and secondary cities in China. In addition, 75% of taxis in Singapore accept Alipay, providing a convenient payment method for Chinese tourists.

SWIFT gpi has been rapidly adopted since its launch last year, and is now being used to send more than a million payments every day with a combined value of well over $100 billion.

 Building on the success of gpi, SWIFT continues to enhance the service, and is introducing the ‘tracker for all’, making a standard version of the tracker available to all SWIFT customers. From 2019, allbanks on the SWIFT network – not just those signed up to gpi – will be able to trace and confirm their SWIFT payment instructions, and have visibility over their payment activity. The rollout will give all SWIFT customers end-to-end tracking, quickly and efficiently – bringing greater transparency and cost reduction. The introduction of the ‘tracker for all’ will prepare the entire industry for universal gpi adoption by the end of 2020.

Improvements to SWIFT gpi go further. While gpi payments between gpi banks are being credited within minutes – often in seconds – payments involving domestic clearing are often delayed owing to the operating hours of domestic payment systems. As more and more countries offer domestic real-time payments 24/7, SWIFT has been working on making these cross-border payments instant as well. Over recent months SWIFT has been trialing the link-up of SWIFT gpi, via gpi members, to domestic real-time payments systems in the Asia-Pacific region. The trial showed that the average time taken for gpi payments sent from China, Singapore and Thailand to settle via a local correspondent bank and through the NPP (New Payments Platform), Australia’s real-time payments system, can be reduced to less than 30 seconds, down from several hours.

While this initial trial focussed on payments going into Australia, findings from the trial will be used to finalise a new SWIFT gpi instant cross-border payments service, which will extend gpi linkages, through gpi members, to other real-time payment systems around the world.

While the instant cross-border payments effort remains underway, SWIFT has also launched gpi for Corporates (g4C)– a new multi-bank payments tracking solution on SWIFTgpi. The new service enables banks to provide gpi information to their corporate clients using FIN and ISO 20022 standards, thus allowing corporates to initiate and track their gpi payments to and from multiple banks in a single format. Corporates can thereby integrate their gpi flows into their ERP and Treasury Management Systems, gaining real-time, end-to-end views on their cross-border payments flows for the first time. The service is designed to improvecorporate payment and cash management processes while reducing complexity, cost and the burden of handling exceptions and investigations.

Nine leading international corporates working together with seven gpi banks have so far successfully implemented multi-bank tracking of gpi payments in their treasury applications. 

Harry Newman, Head of Banking at SWIFT, said: “Since we launched gpi last year, the enthusiasm and support has been off the charts, and gpi is already radically improving the day-to-day experience of banks and their corporate customers. The community has already achieved an enormous amount, but we are not sitting back and basking in the success – instead we are busy improving the service and fulfilling our promise to truly transform cross-border payments for everyone.”

The banks participating in the instant cross-border payments trial are: ANZ, Bangkok Bank, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Commonwealth Bank, DBS, ICBC, KASIKORNBANK, NAB, Siam Commercial Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and United Overseas Bank. 

Corporates and banks live on g4C include: Airbus, BBVA, Booking.com, Borealis, Citi, Deutsche Bank, General Electric, IATA, J.P. Morgan, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Microsoft, Ping An Group, Roche, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Société Générale and Standard Chartered Bank. 

WiseAlpha, the online market offering retail investors access to corporate bonds, has launched an automated service for risk setting and sector selection.

Robowise differs from typical robo-managers in its flexibility. Investors initially choose from portfolios and risk profiles: Balanced or Adventurous. The former focuses on investment grade and senior secured bonds, while the latter adds exposure to high yield and subordinated bonds. Users are able to personalise Robowise further by directing it away from certain companies and industry sectors.

Once activated, Robowise buys and sells different bonds to rebalance the investor’s portfolio on a continual basis to maintain diversification. Cash arising from the repayment of bonds may be reinvested, including in new bonds becoming available through WiseAlpha. Similarly, users may choose whether to reinvest their interest payments or simply withdraw them.

At all times investors remain fully in control and may adjust the settings or indeed turn Robowise on or off. This flexible approach to investing is in stark contrast to the relatively opaque nature of bond funds, since it allows investors complete discretion with the option of using trading technology for day-to-day basic portfolio and cash management.

Wise Alpha’s market offers investors the opportunity to earn income of between 3% and 15% per annum, while backing some of the UK’s best known companies such as Virgin Media and Ocado.

Commenting on the Robowise launch, WiseAlpha CEO Rezaah Ahmad said:

“This is a very important milestone. First we opened up this wonderful asset class, with its broad spectrum of returns, to the everday investor. Now we’re empowering them to pre-select and put their portfolios on autopilot, with advanced tools previously only available to sophisticated institutions and global banks.”

WiseAlpha expects the prospect of superior returns to prompt a longer term shift of consumer investment into corporate bonds, moving away from P2P lending and traditional retail investor asset classes such as equities. 

Ahmad adds:

“While racy new asset classes such as P2P, equity crowdfunding and cryptocurrencies may have attracted huge attention in recent years, financial innovation and product diversity are fuelling substantial growth and attracting senior talent to the corporate bond market.”

Tom Macura, a 10 year veteran of Goldman Sachs, latterly European Head of Credit Trading Strategies, has joined WiseAlpha as Chief Operating Officer.

Macura commented:

“WiseAlpha’s visionary strategy to open up the world of corporate bonds to retail investors is, I believe, one of fintech’s most exciting developments at present. I look forward to driving WiseAlpha’s technological and operational capability as it seeks to build industry-leading standards.” 

Holidaymakers are warming up to prepaid cards for overseas spending as the switch from cash continues, new research from financial data analytics experts Consumer Intelligence shows.

More than one in four (27%) of people heading abroad for winter holidays this year plan to use prepaid cards for some of their spending compared with 23% who used prepaid cards on winter breaks last year.

Nearly three-quarters (74%) heading overseas will still use some cash, the study found, but that is down from 76% last year with the data also showing a rise in the use of credit and debit cards for holiday spending. Pre-paid cards are now nearly as popular as debit cards which are used by 28%.

The gradual switch to pre-paid cards is an opportunity for providers to expand their range and Consumer Intelligence’s research on winter holiday destinations is another indicator of potential growth areas.

Its study found Spain remains the top choice for UK holidaymakers in the winter with 22% planning to visit. But Canada and the US are now the joint second destination chosen by 11%. France and Germany make up the rest of the top five.

Advantages for holidaymakers using prepaid cards include potentially better exchange rates plus less risk for their money if they lose the cards. But customers need to watch out for fees and debit cards can also offer good deals.

Andy Buller, Key Account Director at Consumer Intelligence said: “It is plain that card spending, for winter travellers, is definitely gaining ground.

“Providers must ensure they are offering the right deals, including prepaid cards, for the winter season, as well as taking note of the new popular destinations.”

The European Р2Р platform Robo.cash has been recently joined by a new loan originator LLP Z-FINANCE which provides short-term private lending in Kazakhstan. For the users of the platform, it means more opportunities to invest in short-term loans listed in euro with a repayment period up to 30 days and an expected interest rate up to 12% per annum.

LLP Z-FINANCE has been operating in Kazakhstan since July 2018 providing private lending in cash through an offline network of 102 sales branches. The main product is short-term loans up to EUR 470. The company is going to launch an online lending service in the country by the end of 2018. For the time of its work, Z-FINANCE has issued over 55 thousand loans amounted to EUR 3 million in total. Both the lending company Z-FINANCE and the platform Robo.cash operate within the financial holding Robocash Group represented today in 7 countries of Europe and Asia.

“Originally, Kazakhstan is the second country in the group’s footprint and it’s the second largest market which share comprises about 30% within the portfolio of the financial group according to the results of nine months in 2018. By that moment, Robo.cash has been successfully providing loans from our other loan originator in Kazakhstan already. The launch of Z-FINANCE has allowed us to enhance our offer for customers. Previously, we were more focused on the younger generations in the age of up to 30 years. Now, thanks to a wide-spread offline net we are able to tap a mature audience and support financial inclusion in the local market,” — commented Sergey Sedov, Chief Executive Officer of Robocash Group.

The average loan size issued by Z-FINANCE is equivalent to EUR 60. The repayment period is 30 days. Investors of Robo.cash can expect net annual returns of up to 12%. All loans are provided with a buyback guarantee from Z-FINANCE.

The Western Union Company, a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement today advanced its bill payment services cross-border, enabling consumers in the United States to pay bills and reload mobile phone services in Mexico. A collaboration with global processors Paykii and TransferTo, has paved the way for payment of utility bills or reload of funds onto international prepaid mobile phones in Mexico, via Western Union’s digital and retail channels in the United States.

“We are pleased to merge technologies to shape a new form of user experience paving the way for even more convenience for our customers. The industry calls it disruption, at Western Union we call it collaboration,” said Western Union Global Payments president Jean Claude Farah.

“Through the Western Union mobile app, online at wu.com or in person at Western Union agent locations, customers can now pay their bills, or the bills of a loved one, from utility to phone providers in Mexico,” Farah said.

Through this collaboration with Paykii, a cross border bill payment hub, utility bills from CFE (electric), Telcel (mobile), Telmex (phone), Sky (Satellite TV), Izzi (Cable TV), Dish (Satellite TV), and Telnor (phone) can easily be paid from the United States.

Fabian Saide, CEO of Paykii, said, “We are enthusiastic about working with Western Union, a digital innovator in the industry introducing this service for the first time to individuals living in the U.S. Paykii’s simple cross border bill pay platform will enable Western Union users to pay utility expenses in Mexico ensuring peace of mind for their families back home.”

With TransferTo, a global business-to-business, cross-border digital value services network, consumers living and working outside of their home country of Mexico will be able to easily top up phone credits for friends and family directly to the recipients’ mobile phone.

"We are delighted to be working with Western Union to help provide an international reach for their mobile top-up service,” said Thierry Siminger, Chief Customer Officer at TransferTo. “By utilizing our vast network, Western Union’s customers will have more flexibility and control when treating their loved ones back home,” she said.

With its digital platforms and network of agent locations, Western Union is enhancing the customer experience through service and convenience. In addition to Mexico, the TransferTo collaboration allows Western Union customers in the U.S. to reload international prepaid mobile phones in 12 countries.