On October 10, Minsk will host Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Belarus dedicated to cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and ICOs. It is the second time that an international organizer Smile-Expo holds the event in the capital of Belarus. The previous event was attended by more than 400 guests and involved experts from five countries.       

This year, Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Belarus will give special attention to legal issues. What laws will help in anti-money laundering, how to launch an ICO correctly and enhance reputation using blockchain: these and other things will be revealed by experts from various countries and sectors.      

Artur Kuczmowski: how to combat money laundering on the cryptocurrency market

Artur Kuczmowski is the senior partner at the international group of boutique law firms – Thompson&Stein specializing in law and tax consulting for the blockchain industry. The expert is a lawyer with long-term experience and the author of dozens of specialized articles in industry publications.   

At the conference, Artur will talk about AML and KYC procedures as well as explain why they will be useful during anti-money laundering on the cryptocurrency market and how legal regulations in European countries and Directive of the European Union have changed the attitude to cryptocurrencies. 

Gerbert Shopnik: application of blockchain in state and commercial economic sectors

Gerbert Shopnik is a key customers and partners relations manager at Bitfury. The expert has long-term experience in working for such major international IT companies as Microsoft, VMware, and Lanit. He specializes in cloud technologies and blockchain.   

Gerbert will tell the audience how the distributed ledger technology is applied in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and the USA as well as review scenarios for the public sector and commercial organizations in Belarus.  

Dmitry Machikhin: ICO legal aspects  

After working for a leading law firm called Clifford Chance in Paris and Luxemburg, Dmitry Machikhin became a partner at GMT Legal in Moscow. Currently, he professionally advises IT companies and startups around the world. Besides, he has launched several of his own projects. Since 2017, he has been on the Board of Directors of Midex IT.   

At Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference, Dmitry will focus on ICO launching strategies. The expert will tell the audience what details should be taken into account prior to the token sale organization, how to choose an investor, define how much money an ICO should raise, and other ICO legal aspects.     

Serhii Bondarenko: new methods of loyalty management

Serhii Bondarenko is a lecturer at Deloitte Academy and the Chief Digital Officer at Deloitte Garage. The expert has been focusing on the IT and communication sector for 20 years. During this period, he became a leading technology specialist at Deloitte Ukraine as well as worked for Microsoft Ukraine, Raiffeisen Bank Aval, and Innovate.  

The speaker believes that modern loyalty programs encumber customers with a variety of plastic cards, the majority of which are eventually lost. At the event, Serhii will reveal the advantages of a new approach to the loyalty program for businesses and solutions available to Bonex ecosystem participants.  

Vladimir Popov: how to build reputation using blockchain

Vladimir Popov is a crypto expert and the head of Synergis law firm. He has been engaged in the branch of jurisprudence since 2005, specializing in IT legal issues. 

Vladimir will explain why reputation systems are important in 2018 and why reputation is the P2P system of the future, as well as reveal the foundation of a blockchain philosophy. Moreover, the speaker will examine case studies of launching ICOs of IT projects.

It is not yet a full list of speakers who will be involved in Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Belarus. Other experts and event activities can be found on the website. 

What is Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference?

Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference is a series of the events held by Smile-Expo in 25 countries. Some of them were already organized in Australia, Finland, France, Israel, Philippines, and other parts of the world.   

Join the community of crypto enthusiasts at Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Belarus that will take place on October 10, 2018, in Minsk-based DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel.    

Boards are not only looking at Chief Information Officer’s (CIOs) to address operational efficiencies and IT performance, but are also focused on how they can become more customer centric, according to a survey of 1,200 UK CIOs.

The Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey found that 60 percent of UK CIOs said that management were looking at IT to help enhance customer experience. It also found that when it comes to prioritising digital technology initiatives, improving customer experience is the most important goal for 62 percent of UK CIOs. This is followed by attracting new customers and growing revenue from existing customers, with both at 57 percent.

Lisa Heneghan, head of digital transformation at KPMG UK said: “Customer centricity is becoming understood to be at the core of driving greater value for organisations. This year, we have clearly seen how organisations that put customers at the heart of everything are driving greater growth and profitability. This is requiring CIO’s to think in a different way and understand how the IT function can also pivot to enable a more integrated customer experience.”

Charting their views on IT spend -  which 45 percent expect to increase over the next 12 months - the  CIOs ranked artificial intelligence (AI) as their number one technology investment. Virtual reality and Blockchain technology enhancements were the lowest ranked with only 8 percent intending to invest. On-demand marketplace platforms were ranked second, followed by internet of things and robotic process automation.

“The Government’s desire for the UK to be world leaders in AI seems to be developing as we see it being the number one technology spend for UK IT leaders. Interestingly, despite all the hype that surrounds Blockchain technology, it is the least favoured tech investment for the IT leadership cohort,” added Heneghan.

The CIO cohort also highlighted the areas within their business where they have managed to automate jobs. Roles in IT (24 percent), customer support (19 percent) and finance (14 percent) were cited as the main three parts that have been automated.

“Technology is allowing businesses to automate many functions within IT and customer support. However, companies are still dependent on experts to oversee technical elements of business like risk and law. There is still some time yet before we will see wholescale changes to the workforce influenced by technology,” concluded Heneghan.

ICS Financial Systems Limited (ICSFS), a global software and services provider for banks and financial institutions and a Gold level member of Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), today announced successful and unmatched results of high-watermark benchmark performance of its ICS BANKS® Universal Banking Application on Oracle Exadata environment.

Performed in August 2018, at Oracle’s UK Labs, ICSFS benchmarked its ICS BANKS® software suite on Oracle Exadata Database environment. The benchmark covers both Oracle Database Enterprise Edition 12c and 18c. The results have demonstrated ICSFS’ ability to derive remarkable and competitive performance of ICS BANKS® running on Exadata servers.

ICSFS generated ICS BANKS® data representing tier 1 and tier 2 universal banking activity volumes of 63 million customers, 630 million accounts, 5,000 branches and 60,000 concurrent users.

High-Watermark results were achieved on 18c & 12c Database with simulating 60,000 concurrent users, a throughput of 35.5k (35,577) financial transactions per second (TPS) on 18c Database and 32k (31,972) TPS on 12c Database are sustained during the test period of 35 minutes. The ATM & E-Channels benchmark revealed an overall throughput of 128k (128,448) TPS on 18c Database and 114k (113,858) TPS on 12c Database were achieved during the 20 minutes test. While ICS BANKS Digital Banking platform achieved results that exceeded expectations and success criteria; simulating 63 million online IBS registered users; whilst 200k concurrent users were working at the same time making a throughput of 143K TPS on 18c Database and 128K TPS on 12c Database; resulting in 257.5 million transactions on 18c Database and 231.5 million transactions on 12c Database within 30 minutes. During this test the system supported 1.25 million users log on within a 30-minute window.

The enormous and tremendous tests of End of Month Capitalization Batch processing 630 million Interest Accounts in 4 minutes window resulting in an unmatched batch throughput of 262k (262,354) accounts per second.

Managing Director of ICSFS; Mr. Robert Hazboun commented on this milestone;

“ICSFS is the first Oracle ISV partner worldwide to perform this kind of testing on Oracle 18c database, and achieve best benchmarking results to-date. This performance benchmark reflects ICS BANKS and Oracle Exadata Database Machine’ high scalability and agility of providing high levels of operational efficiency, and delivering powerful solutions designed for the banking industry.”

Oracle EMEA Vice President, ISV/OEM; Mr. Kamil Guclu stated;

“Success is more than leading with innovation and pioneering of technology, we have to be able to measure performance accurately too. ICSFS software with their application ICS BANKS®️ could achieve their phenomenal benchmark results, both Cloud and On-Premise by using Oracle Exadata.”

Executive Director of ICSFS; Mr. Wael Malkawi stated;

“This high-watermark benchmark is a testament to ICS BANKS application’s capabilities, where no other banking software solution has produced such outstanding results. We are proud of these significant results and are honoured to share this success with a strategic partner such as Oracle.”

Chief Technology & Innovation Officer of ICSFS; Mr. Ghassan I. Sarsak added:

“The vital performance and significant results of this benchmark reflect ICSFS’ strategic vision of utilising the latest technologies to lower transaction’s cost, while still increasing revenue streams for financial services, enhancing customer experience and ensuring efficient service delivery.” Sarsak added “ICS BANKS’ speed of transaction is aligned with the speed of innovation.”

ICS BANKS provides a complete suite of banking business modules with a rich sweep of functionalities and features, addressing business needs and automating accounting processes, as needed, to improve a bank’s business performance. ICS BANKS has always been a pioneer in utilising the latest technology to serve financial institutions. In addition to its embedded Service-Oriented-Architecture (SOA), the system is deployed in a multi-tiered setup that runs on a web thin client.

iSignthis Ltd (ASX : ISX | DE : TA8) (Company) is pleased to advise that it has today successfully secured a placement of 68,965,517 ordinary shares in the Company to a number of sophisticated and wholesale investors at a price of A$0.145 per share, raising A$10m before costs (“Placement”). The Placement was Jointly led and managed by Merchant Corporate Advisory and Petra Capital. The new shares to be issued under the Placement will rank equally with existing fully paid ordinary shares in the Company.

The Placement was conducted in accordance with ASX Listing Rule 7.1.

The expected date of issue of the securities is Monday, 8th October 2018.

Purpose / Use of Proceeds

The Company has recently applied to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) for Authority to carry on banking business as a Provider of a Purchased Payment Facility (PPF Provider) under the Banking Act 1959.

The $10m capital raising includes the capital requirements the Company anticipates will be required to satisfy the minimum prudential Tier 1 capital requirements for licensing of the Company’s subsidiary, iSignthis eMoney (AU) Pty Ltd (“ISEMAU”), as a PPF Provider, a special class of Authorised Deposit-taking Institution (ADI) that are authorised to undertake a limited range of banking activities.

The conditions are anticipated to be similar to those imposed on Paypal Australia Pty Limited, being the only other PPF Provider ADI licensed by APRA.

The license application is still under review by APRA and may be subject to other conditions. ISEMAU will also directly process and settle card payments as a scheme participant under the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Payment Card Access Regime.

ISEMAU previously announced on the 18th July 2018 that it has been successful in entering into a Mastercard Principal License under the Access Regime1 , and also previously announced on the 29th March 2018 its card acquiring agreement with American Express.

Resumption of Trading

As a result of this announcement, the Company will resume trading from the commencement of trading today.

 Identity verification specialist Onfido today announces that it has partnered with leading global remittance platform, Remitly. Onfido’s AI technology helps Remitly swiftly onboard new users to its platform, without running the risk of fraud or financial crime.

Launched in 2011, Remitly is the largest independent digital remittance company in North America and is also available across twelve European territories, Canada and Australia. Remitly serves immigrant communities around the world by helping them transfer money internationally quickly and cost-efficiently; annually, over $6 billion is transferred through the platform.

For Remitly, meeting compliance requirements without sacrificing the speed its users expect was key. Remitly chose to partner with Onfido to deliver frictionless ID record checks to its users around the world. Thanks to Onfido’s AI-based technology, KYC processes can now be rapidly completed for new users wishing to join the platform; for those requiring further assurance, a document check can also be performed. This cascade approach enables Remitly to scale to meet customer demand without compromising on either speed or security.

With users around the world accessing the platform every month, high pass rates were a deciding factor for Remitly. Onfido consistently outperformed other providers in this respect, resulting in less user drop-off and greater conversions for Remitly.

Nate Spanier, VP Global Payments and Expansion at Remitly, said: “Onfido’s superior speed, solid match rates and customisable checks have enabled us to rapidly scale into new markets, and add more users to our global community. Our users expect to be able to make and receive payments quickly and easily, and Onfido helps us to deliver on that promise without adding friction to their journey. They also give us the assurance we need that our users are who they claim to be, and that’s invaluable as Remitly continues its global growth.”

Husayn Kassai, CEO and co-founder of Onfido, said: “In a digital age, users need smooth, swift and secure access to services. But delivering that can be a challenge for financial businesses who are subject to complex regulations. We understand that challenge, and are very excited to be working with Remitly to deliver a frictionless experience to their users around the world.”

AxiomSL, the leading provider of regulatory reporting and risk management solutions, today announces that CNH Industrial Financial Services, a global financial services player in the Capital Goods financing business, has selected AxiomSL’s strategic platform to implement AnaCredit and local statistical (Schema-A) reporting in Belgium.

By selecting AxiomSL, CNH Industrial Financial Services will meet its objective to automate their reporting process, from data sourcing to submission of the reports, to the National Bank of Belgium (NBB).

AnaCredit is a major European Central Bank (ECB) initiative which requires financial institutions to report granular loan level data. The NBB has merged the ECB’s AnaCredit reporting requirement into its Belgium specific BECARIS reporting regime, adding additional local complexity. Schema-A is the NBB’s traditional aggregated statistical reporting regime that has been in place for several years.

CNH Industrial Financial Services chose AxiomSL’s platform because it will ensure that the client can manage many types of reporting complexity, both granular and aggregated, while meeting the fast approaching reporting deadline for AnaCredit in September 2018. The platform also aids CNH Industrial Financial Services in future-proofing, as it provides a stronger process to maintain the compliance levels and increases the capabilities for control.

AxiomSL’s scalable platform and business dashboards allow users to quickly process, monitor and validate their reports and ensure they are submitted accurately to the regulators. The flexible nature of the solution enables users to drill down from the final reports to source data and delivers transparency into their entire reporting process. Once they are satisfied with their reports, client can sign off on them before they are submitted to relevant domestic credit register.

Pierre-Thomas Joire, Chief Accounting Officer, CNH Industrial Financial Services commented: “AnaCredit and local statistical reporting requirements fuelled the need for us to incorporate technology in our compliance program to improve efficiency. AxiomSL’s integrated solution and smooth and lean data model will enable us to deal confidently with increasing regulatory requirements. We look forward to working with the team at AxiomSL.”

Ed Royan, CEO, AxiomSL EMEA commented: “We are pleased that CNH Industrial Financial Services has selected AxiomSL for AnaCredit and local statistical reporting. Regulators across the world require more granular, frequent and better quality data. Firms are under immense pressure to satisfy these demands whilst carrying out their business-as-usual activities. AxiomSL’s multi-award winning strategic platform delivers cross-jurisdictional regulatory reporting and risk management solutions and greatly reduces the compliance burden on clients with automation, data governance and end-to-end data management capabilities. We look forward to a long-term partnership with CNH Industrial Financial Services”.

From tomorrow, identity verification checks carried out in one EU country will be valid across all member states. This is under the Electronic Identification, Authentication and trust Services (eIDAS) regulation, to which all EU states must comply by today.

Traditional frameworks for identity verification involved all members having their own manual systems including document and in-person checks, third-party notarisations, and government-issued identification. While it served its purpose, these systems are not built for the modern world of high-speed, online, mobile interactions.

The new regulation underscores the importance of a digital identity framework that can perform electronic identification and trust services for digital transactions. This will help to create one identity framework for the entire European Union.

Today’s interconnected digital economy needs to feature effective and secure identity systems, according to identity verification experts at Trulioo. As Zac Cohen, General Manager at Trulioo explains, different member states “currently have different electronic ID schemes and there’s very little standardisation or cross-border cohesion. For private companies operating in Europe, this means they have to comply with identification regulations on a country-by-country basis.”

Zac continues: “The cost of compliance to identity regulations is increasingly high, with the average bank spending £47 million a year on inefficient identification processes​[1]. Although the eIDAS regulation is for member states, once the rules and infrastructures are in place, it will make it easier for the private sector to accept and implement similar processes. This will allow for more efficient AML compliance and KYC regulations across borders.”

Zac continues: “Instead of waiting for the potential of eIDAS to pass through the various legal stages and through to independent businesses, companies can improve their compliance procedures now. While each country has different ID procedures, there is best practice for each member state. Leveraging shared technologies and data can help make identity verification across borders a far more efficient and streamlined process.”