BT and the Mexican Stock Exchange, part of BMV Group, today announced the signing of a new contract that will make it easier for global investors, market data vendors and service providers to access Mexico’s financial markets. The deal will enable BT to distribute the latest BMV multicast feeds over the BT Radianz Cloud, one of the world’s largest secure financial markets cloud communities. 

The Mexican Stock Exchange is one of the largest and longest established stock and derivatives exchanges in Latin America. Its contract with BT furthers its strategy to expand its global coverage by giving it access to the Radianz Cloud community, a ready-to-exploit global marketplace that can help it to accelerate international growth.

The Radianz Cloud community consists of thousands of brokers, institutions, exchanges and clearing and settlement houses. Through a single, resilient and secure network connection engineered for the exacting demands of the international financial markets industry, members can reliably access thousands of applications and services from more than 400 providers critical to the every-day running of the global financial sector.

José Manuel Allende, senior vice president of issuers and information for BMV Group, said: “Mexico is a growing market and one that international investors are increasingly seeking to access. We’ve made it easier for them to reach us by joining the Radianz Cloud. This gives us a new secure and reliable distribution channel to deliver our broad set of equities and derivatives market data feeds to institutions globally. It creates opportunities for growth in our international customer base and expands our global footprint.”

Michael Woodman, managing director, Radianz, BT, said: “Today’s agreement is a great example of how BT continues to invest in the Radianz Cloud to expand its reach and the scope of services available to its community members. Furthermore, it will help grow trading activity and investment into and out of Mexico in a way that can lead to a more vibrant market, promoting the country as a global financial hub.”

After having grown its revenues by 137% since 2016, 8x those reported in 2015 (when the company was founded), Perkbox, Europe’s fastest growing employee engagement platform and UK’s market leader in serving SMEs, is today announcing its expansion into Europe, with first stop France.

With offices in 10 Rue Pergolèse, Paris, Perkbox France is currently building its portfolio of perks with providers such as IKEA, Sephora, FNAC, Decathlon and Zalando, looking to cater for the full spectrum of employee wellbeing - physical, financial and emotional, at an affordable price.

Due to French legal employment obligations, French companies have to provide their staff with mandatory benefits, including health, pension and unemployment benefits, business expenses and paid holidays. Perkbox France’s strategy will initially be centered around sub 250 companies, offering them an additional layer of support.

With this being an almost untapped ground, 450 SMEs have already registered to launch with Perkbox. The company has plans to have 3,000 up and running on the platform by the end of the year and will be expanding further across Europe in the next 12 months.

Saurav Chopra, Co-founder and CEO of Perkbox says:

“Our goal is to become the biggest engagement platform worldwide that helps foster the entire employee experience of every company’s staff. Our expansion into France shows our ongoing commitment to achieve this. We have listened to our clients’ demands and are now acting upon them.

“It's the start of an exciting new phase here at Perkbox, as we launch globally. With a new generation of products going live alongside these expansion plans, it’s not only about location but about delivery. We want to ensure we are offering our customers all the support they need to build happier workplaces."

Holidaymakers are losing up to 13% exchanging unused foreign currency after trips abroad due to the rates on offer from foreign exchange providers, financial data analytics experts Consumer Intelligence warn.

One of the biggest gaps between buying and selling rates is offered by the Post Office[1] - customers buying £100.99 of US dollars at the Post Office receive $130 but would only receive £87.25 for selling the $130.

There are better rates on offer than the 13% loss on buying and then selling but Consumer Intelligence advises holidaymakers to consider buyback guarantees.

There is potentially huge demand – its research shows one in three (32%) holidaymakers intend to exchange left over foreign currency after overseas trips and nearly two out of five 

(38%) take more than £500 of cash abroad.

Providers offering buyback guarantees on unused currency include Asda, Travelex and Moneycorp who charge £3.99 for the service while Caxton charges £4.99 for the buyback on its prepaid cards.

Eurochange uses a sliding scale offering to buy back 20% of the original amount for £2 after 20 days; 30% for £3 after 30 days; or 30% for £5 after 50 days. The Post Office does not offer a buy back guarantee.

Andy Buller, Key Account Director at Consumer Intelligence said: “Buyback guarantees can be good value for customers planning to sell back currency particularly when compared with the buy and sell rates offered by travel money providers.

“Holidaymakers are often coming back with large amounts of unused cash and there is a real opportunity for currency providers to win more business by offering good rates on buyback schemes.

“There is certainly a lot of leftover foreign currency around in the UK and it’s all money that could be better used for something else.”

Buyback schemes are not the only way for holidaymakers to get the most from foreign currency – customers with Euros and dollars can often secure better rates on exchanging cash when they are overseas.

QuantHouse, the leading independent global provider of end-to-end systematic trading solutions including innovative market data services, algo trading platform and infrastructure solutions, today announced access to Quantitative Brokers’ (“QB”) best execution algorithms for futures and fixed income.

QB is a global, independent technology company providing advanced execution algorithms and analytics for global futures and US cash treasury markets.

QB provides highly specialized algorithmic strategies designed to optimize execution and minimize market impact for outright, listed spread and inter-commodity trades. To meet the ever increasing need from today’s quant traders for streamlined access to such services, QB has made its services accessible through the qh API Ecosystem store. 

Salloum Abousaleh, Managing Director, Americas, QuantHouse, said, “QuantHouse is excited to welcome QB to the qh API ecosystem store. Our quant and systematic buy-side clients such as global macros, CTAs and hedge funds can now leverage QB's advanced algorithms for best execution and analytics. We have seen a significant increase in demand from the buy-side not only for best execution, but also quality insights and access to a dashboard.”

Alastair Hawker, Global Head of Sales, Quantitative Brokers, commented, “QB’s algorithms are designed to provide a hidden footprint while working to achieve the best possible execution. This is made possible by QB’s proprietary micro structure research, analytics, event tracking and short-term pricing signals. We look forward to helping more clients improve their execution through QuantHouse’s ecosystem store.”

CryptoCompare, the global cryptocurrency market data provider, has today published the ‘Cryptoasset Taxonomy Report’. The taxonomy provides retail and institutional investors, regulators and the industry as a whole with an independent classification of cryptoassets, based on the depth, breadth and scope of CryptoCompare’s global datasets.

More than 1,000 different cryptoassets have emerged in the last year alone. Each of these cryptoassets can be categorised and understood using numerous frameworks. There is a clear requirement for a unified approach on how to categorise these assets, to make well-informed investment decisions.

In line with CryptoCompare’s rigorous data standards, the taxonomy represents a detailed analysis of 200+ cryptoassets, based on more than 30 unique attributes, covering a range of economic, legal and technological features. CryptoCompare analysed the classification of cryptoassets from a variety of perspectives, including: existing natural cryptoasset groupings; regulatory classifications; access and governance; market cap and volume data; level of decentralisation; generation, distribution and supply concentration, to name but a few.

The taxonomy also offers a summary classification – the CryptoCompare Archetypes. This reflects what CryptoCompare considers the most natural grouping of cryptoassets at this moment in time.

Charles Hayter, CEO and Founder of CryptoCompare, said: “Daily, retail and institutional investment communities express an appetite to invest and develop investment products and instruments based on cryptoassets. Key to this is the demand for a single, independent and trustworthy taxonomy offering transparency, consistency and confidence.”

He added: “Based on our deep understanding of the cryptocurrency space and the breadth and integrity of our data, we are confident that this taxonomy will help industry participants, as well as regulators, gain a better understanding of the cryptocurrency landscape. In this nascent but fast evolving industry, we aim to offer the clarity required to navigate the complex crypto markets, helping all investors benefit from our experience and insights, and make well informed investment decisions.”

Simon Taylor, Founder of Global Digital Finance & Co-Founder 11:FS, commented: “Global Digital Finance (GDF) has worked directly with global policy makers and standards bodies, to help bring a clearer understanding of the opportunities and risks that arise from cryptoassets. It's clear language is one of the key challenges, given a word can have many meanings to many different professions.  Indeed the simple use of "currency" can cause concern when used instead of "payment". By using the right terms, and by using shared language we can build a shared understanding of the significant potential cryptoassets will bring to the global economy. The work by CryptoCompare is the most detailed taxonomy to date and we look forward to future collaborations.”

Jack Tatar, Managing Partner, Doyle Capital Management, said: “The taxonomy that was defined in ‘Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond’ was intended to create a foundational basis for further study. CryptoCompare’s ‘Cryptoasset Taxonomy Report’ provides a step forward in defining this space through its thoughtful, detailed and exhaustive research that incorporates lessons learned and current thinking since the publication of our book. It’s heartening to see the hard work and effort undertaken to further define the taxonomy of cryptoassets and rewarding to recognise that bright minds are pursuing this topic. What’s been produced here is such a high-quality report that will allow others to build upon what’s provided here.”

Gabor Gurbacs, Director, Digital Asset Strategy VanEck/MVIS, added: “VanEck’s MVIS is committed to supporting greater standardisation and transparency in digital asset taxonomy. The proposed taxonomy is transparent, follows industry classification standards and has incorporated views from a wide range of market participants, regulators and academics. We have worked closely with CryptoCompare, MVIS’ core partner in digital asset data and indexing, as well as GDF and wish to see this classification standard adopted widely.”

Leon Marshall, lead author and senior adviser, commented: "I'm incredibly proud of the bottom-up research that our team has undertaken for this taxonomy. As the cryptoasset space matures, I am confident that our taxonomy can be used both as an intellectual framework and as a foundation for additional research. In addition, I am also grateful to Chris Burniske, Felipe Pereira, Ari Paul, Thomas Linder, John Pfeffer, Eitan Jankelewitz, Michael Jackson, Simon Taylor, Jesse McWaters, Teana-Baker-Taylor, Eric Wall and Max Mersch for sharing their considered thoughts and time with us."

ASHBURN International, a company specializing in solutions for managing and monitoring POS terminal networks, signed a long-term strategic partnership agreement with the Common Republican Processing Center (CRPC) of Uzbekistan. CRPC organizes the complex and goal-oriented movement of the modern bank information technologies in the financial market of Uzbekistan. Common Republican Processing Center is responsible for processing transactions. It controls the operation of more than 250,000 payment terminals. The agreement deals with the sale of licenses and implementation of the TransLink.iQ solution, which provides the real-time POS terminals management, functionality and software updates, safe transfer of financial transactions to bank hosts.

Within the framework of the signed agreement (which will be valid at least 10 years), ASHBURN International will install developed by the company software TransLink.iQ, adapted for the Uzbek market. An agreement also reaches on supply of the new POS terminals and the sale of more than 250,000 licenses for the managed by the CRPC POS terminals, owned by 28 Uzbek banks.

The Common Republican Processing Center predicts an increase in the number of payment terminals operating on the TransLink.iQ platform by more than 50,000 units per year.

"The Uzbek electronic payment market is developing at an extraordinary pace. There are about 22 million cards of the national payment system UZCARD, also of the Masterсard Worldwide, UnionPay International, etc., which we manage. The Processing Center introduces innovative solutions in Uzbekistan and ensures the highest quality of services. ASHBURN International was chosen as a partner not by chance. Its comprehensive solution is most consistent with the CRPC’s business development strategy. The wide functionality of the TransLink.iQ software provides the ability to process large data streams. Our partnership guarantees the stability and efficiency of the Uzbek banking sector development," said the CRPC General Director Akhror Makhmudov.

ASHBURN International Executive Director Žoržas Šarafanovičius accentuated that the contract negotiation was successful, because both sides had a similar vision of future cooperation and strategic goals. Different tests and experimental work on system integration were carried out during the project preparation, consequently an optimal solution, most suitable for the Uzbek market, was found.

"One of the TransLink.iQ key advantages is its wide functionality. Our software allow accepting payments made by all payment cards operating in Uzbekistan (UZCARD, VISA, Mastercard, etc.) or by loyalty cards. This option simplifies the work of the Common Republican Processing Center and trade organizations, which can accept payments from different payment systems through the one POS terminal. There will be no changes in the payment terminals work after the TransLink.iQ introduction, so it will be unnecessary to train the representatives of trade organizations additionally," says the ASHBURN International Executive Director.

Among the TransLink.iQ advantages is not only compatibility with POS terminals of different manufacturers, but also the ability to optimize business expenses, update software, real-time monitoring and remote POS terminals network management. The platform allows automating management of the cryptographic keys, fixing and reacting to possible acquiring networks failures. The TransLink.iQ solution meets the requirements of international payment systems, EMV and the highest PCI security standards, which guarantees the cardholder’s data protection.

The CRPC main objectives include targeted promotion of advanced banking information technologies and electronic payment instruments to the Uzbek financial market. It is also responsible for the processing for the nationwide UZCARD payment system, to which 28 banks are connected. The Common Republican Processing Center develops partnership with international financial institutions and settlement associations, world producers of innovative bank equipment.

ASHBURN International, a member of the group of companies “Penki kontinentai”, offers the POS terminals network monitoring and management solutions, transaction data transfer and loyalty system management. ASHBURN International also provides rental, installation and maintenance services of the bank equipment. The company is the official partner of the world's largest POS terminals manufacturer Ingenico Group in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The ASHBURN International services portfolio includes outsourcing in financial, commercial and telecommunication spheres. The software and equipment meet the international organizations VISA International, Mastercard, American Express, Diners Club International, JCB and UPI requirements.

DoshEx, the Johannesburg-based developer of tokenised ecosystemsand exchange, has formally launched following the listing of twovirtual assets by two financial service companies.

The digital tokens registered and listed with DoshEx permit these pioneering enterprises to transfer value to third parties in a fast, cost-efficient and transparent manner that delivers built-in fraud protection and client peace of mind as all transactions are blockchain-enabled.

Transactions logged on a blockchain are cryptography-based and tamper-proof, a key factor behind the growing international appeal of tokenized ecosystems.

A third ‘tokenized economy’ is scheduled to list on the Bryanston-based exchange in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Each ‘tokenized economy’ meets unique industry needs while various reasons drive the use of these digitized assets.

DoshEx, a self-funded exchange and tokenization specialist, is led by a group of South African entrepreneurs and businessmen and offers a range of services, including:

• conceptualization and development of tokenized solutions, customized to the unique needs of major corporates and others;
• safekeeping of funds through ‘cold storage’ in cold wallets, totally isolated from online networks and safeguarded through multi-signature security systems, reducing any single-man dependence and vulnerabilities;
• design and deployment of blockchain-enabled solutions;
• exchange listings on DoshEx;
• design and roll-out of fit-for-purpose tokenized ecosystems, with integration to traditional financial systems for ease of use. 

DoshEx CEO Alex de Bruyn commented: “We took the exchange live in August and are now ready to follow up with the public launch of tokenized solutions.

“Although globally proven, tokenization is still a relatively novel concept in South Africa, but we could not have hoped for a better response to our market offering, as indicated by the signing of three great customers and the delivery of our first two tokenized solutions.

“Early adoption requires a vision and a keen awareness of the benefits that accrue when instantly verifiable and automatically triggered transactions are concluded via a blockchain.”

He added: “Financial service organizations have been quick to appreciate the benefits of a DoshEx listing, but awareness is rapidly growing across other sectors.” 

International experience indicates that tokenization spurs the further development of loyalty programmes, though the loyalty industry represents only a small fraction of the potential customer-base.

De Bruyn said major retail groups and quick service restaurant chains are well positioned to achieve efficiencies and reinforce ‘sticky’ customer relationships through the creation of tokenized ecosystems on a blockchain.

Many organizations, according to the DoshEx CEO, are attracted to token-ecosystems simply because of their proven ability to slash transaction and record-keeping costs, with the benefits especially attractive to large organizations thatdraw on extensive supplier networks and serve wide-ranging customer groups. 

DoshEx services are supported by an in-house team of blockchain developers and business process professionals.

De Bruyn noted: “Feedback from potential DoshEx users indicates tokenization is increasingly seen as a tool for leveraging corporate growth and an essential building block for businesses with international ambitions.

“Tokenization creates instant global reach. Cross-border remittances cease to be a constraint or a hassle-factor for customers. Transaction efficiencies across the supply chain are also considerable while major companies are impressed by the instant auditability of blockchain-generated records – an important consideration as corporates review internal controls in light of recent accounting failures.”

Though corporate interest continues to pick up, De Bruyn foresees no immediate capacity constraints.

He commented: “We anticipate high future demand for tokenized solutions, but we’re confident we have sufficient capacity within our current structure. However, local skills are scarce and extensive blockchain and cryptography training is hard to come by. This could become a constraint, but not for some while yet.”

Arya, an intelligent, open architecture digital services platform for both retail and commercial account holders, announced today at the Jack Henry Annual Conference (JAC) the roll-out of new features including: a payment wizard, receipt capture, and an optimized user experience.

Arya digital banking’s innovative payments wizard is in response to the emergence of numerous payment transfer options. The payment wizard capitalizes on least-cost routing to connect consumer and business account holders with the best channel for transferring funds. The decisioning tool takes input concerning the user’s transfer details to provide the best route for transferring funds through P2P, A2A, Wire, or ACH channels. By using Arya’s payment wizard, account holders benefit from efficient funds transfer while financial institutions benefit from cost savings and operational efficiencies.  

In addition to an enhanced payment transfer experience, consumer and business account holders can now store receipts in Arya digital banking with receipt capture. By using a camera on a smartphone or tablet, users can capture receipt images and connect the receipt to the transaction in their account. This enables account holders to preserve an audit trail of transactions for future use.

Further enhancements include Arya’s newly modified design that delivers a tailored experience to account holders based on the devices used to access the platform. Considerations pertaining to how users interact with applications on various devices led VSoft to augment laptop and smartphone experiences to reflect these commonly performed activities. For example, users on mobile devices will have quick access to transferring funds and viewing account balance information. Regardless of the device, users have access to the platform’s full functionality.

Arya’s display was thoughtfully designed to present optimal information to the account holder. For smartphones, the interface is optimized with thumb-friendly gesture controls, allowing easy navigation with one hand through swiping and reachable menu buttons. Arya’s enhanced experience also includes an optional chat bubble view of account activities to help users visualize information in a familiar format.

“Reinvesting in our solutions is what VSoft does best,” said Abhishek Veeraghanta, business development executive of digital initiatives at VSoft. “Since Arya’s debut in 2017, we have gathered feedback from our clients to create a highly optimized digital banking platform that complements the ways consumer and business account holders navigate their day-to-day lives. Providing account holders with highly individualized tools and experiences drives every decision we make concerning our Arya digital banking platform.”

Finicity, a leading provider of real-time financial data aggregation and insights, announced today it has been selected as a third-party service provider for the new Freddie Mac Loan AdvisorSM automated income and asset assessment capabilities, which provide a faster, easier way for lenders to verify loan application data upfront. Finicity’s digital verification reports greatly improve efficiency and accuracy, while also providing a simpler, more pleasant borrower experience.

“Finicity loves working with digital innovators. Lenders need digital services to compete and meet customer expectations, and Freddie Mac gets it,” said Steve Smith, CEO and co-founder of Finicity. “They are pushing hard to help lenders remove hassles for borrowers while reducing complexity, cost and risk in loan originations.”

Freddie Mac announced its new income and asset assessment capabilities at the Mortgage Bankers Association Annual Convention & Expo earlier today. Finicity’s verification reports are integrated within Freddie Mac Loan Product Advisor®, the cornerstone of Loan Advisor Suite. When the capability goes live later this quarter, asset verification will be generally available and income verification will be available as a limited release.

Finicity was selected due to its established expertise within the mortgage lending industry and its innovative digital lending solutions.

“Finicity’s high quality data, combined with their data intelligence capabilities and Loan Product Advisor’s superior underwriting capability, will help lenders provide a better mortgage lending experience for homebuyers, giving them the Freddie EdgeSM,” said Samuel E. Oliver III, Freddie Mac Vice President, Major Project Execution for the Single-Family Business. “This industry-leading solution gives our clients that competitive advantage.”

Finicity also recently released upgrades to both its asset and income verification products. Verification of Assets (VoA) reports now have an option to receive up to 24 months of transaction data, and Verification of Income (VoI) reports now use an enhanced analytical model to rank income streams with confidence scores.  

Finicity’s upgrades are a part of its larger mission to improve consumer-permissioned data access and further advance digitization in the lending industry. Consumer-permissioned data gives borrowers a path to secure mortgages with less paperwork and hassle, while shortening the time to close and reducing potential fraud. Borrowers can now provide a rich financial history through real-time access to transactions which completes verifications in minutes instead of days. Finicity will continue to innovate its asset, income and employment validations utilizing consumer-permissioned data.

“Utilizing data and automation are critical to the success of lenders as we transform the digital mortgage process,” said Parvesh Sahi, senior vice president, business development, Ellie Mae. “By shortening the lending process and leveraging data to improve decision-making, we’re providing value to all members of the industry including lenders and borrowers.”

Finicity’s verification reports will be available through Ellie Mae, Black Knight, Mortgage Cadence, BeSmartee, MortgageHippo, SimpleNexus, Capsilon, Blue Sage, Lender Price, DataVerify, Advanced Data, and other to-be-announced integrations.

Moneynetint, UK based electronic e-money institution which provides cross-border money transfers and currency exchange for corporate clients around the world, announced that it had completed the integration phase with Ripple, which offers blockchain solutions for payments.

Following the completion of the development, integration processes and full deployment of Moneynetint, as part of RippleNet, Moneynetint has already begun to receive payment instructions from two other network partners and process these payments in a secure and decentralised manner.

Yishay Trif, CEO of Moneynetint: "The cooperation signed with Ripple is part of the company's strategic move to advance into innovative areas of the payments industry and to become a groundbreaking institution in the field. The fact that RippleNet serves as a platform that sets uniform parameters for all its members facilitates the process of interfacing between international financial entities. For Moneynetint, the collaboration is a leap forward in the ability to provide advanced services to its customers, opening additional corridors and opportunities that have not been available or had no reliable nor cheap solution for them in the past and as a result, increasing Moneynetint' exposure to a wider customer base while minimizing the risks involved."

"Once we realised how professional the Ripple team was and supports the process, we decided to choose them. We expect that together we will be able to lead significant development and simplify processes in the area of cross-border money transfers. The processes of interfacing and approval between financial institutions, previously taking months or even years are now significantly reduced to a matter of days to a few weeks", Trif added. 

As part of the collaboration, those international financial institutions already connected to the RippleNet payment platform and seeking to benefit from the Moneynetint infrastructure and capabilities will now be able to quickly and easily interface without the need for additional API execution.

"We welcome the collaboration with Moneynetint Their ability to now facilitate payouts in Israeli New Shekel - in addition to Euros - on behalf of other RippleNet members is another big step in expanding the overall network. By leveraging Ripple’s blockchain technology, Moneynetint will now be able to simplify and reduce the FX conversion rates for their customers, increase the speed of settlement and offer services to new markets that would otherwise have been too difficult or too costly to reach in the past", said Nadeem Ladki, Director of Account Management of Ripple.