Despite one in ten migrant workers in the UK having to live away from their children (9%) or spouses (8%), two-thirds (64%) are relieved they can support these family members after moving, reveals Xpress Money, one of the most dependable money transfer brands in the world. These sacrifices mean that two in three (60%) migrant workers are now able to better provide financial support to their families, through remittances.

Researching 250 migrant workers across the UK, Xpress Money found them to have high confidence in their prospects; three quarters (75%) say they expect to remain in employment in the next two years, and seven in 10 (69%) are confident they will be able to continue sending money to family in the same period. Highlighting the benefits of moving to the UK, two-thirds (66%) agree their annual income is now significantly higher.

Migrant workers are also contributing to the UK, with the majority (62%) of workers’ earnings being fed back into the economy, and a fifth (21%) put into savings. When it comes to spending habits, rent and bills (31%) and food and grocery shopping (24%) make up over half of migrant workers’ expenditure.

Sudhesh Giriyan, Chief Operating Officer, Xpress Money, said: “It’s clear that migrant workers in the UK send a significant chunk of their salaries to their loved ones back home, which gets utilized in expenditures related to household and those expenses that help them live a better life. Besides working hard to improve their own lives, the confidence they have in leading long-term and stable employment is helping them support the loved ones they left behind, as well as the UK economy. The money they send home through remittances act as a lifeline for many across the world; providing everything from food and water to electricity and healthcare.”

What the financial support provides

Remittances have a massive impact on millions across the world. According to the research, 6% of migrant workers moved to the UK solely to financially help their families back home and a significant proportion of the money sent home goes towards much more serious needs such as household expenditures, healthcare and medical costs.

Top three basic needs that remittances from the UK cover

• Electricity and gas bills (25%)
• Healthcare and medical costs (25%)
• Buying food and water (17%)

In fact, while it is spouses and children that migrant workers are leaving behind, the biggest beneficiaries of remittances from the UK are parents (54%), followed by siblings (10%); with spouses (9%), children (9%) and friends (4%) making up the top five. With the support they’re able to provide from the UK, three in 10 (29%) now feel that their families would suffer if they couldn’t send money abroad.

A wealth of remittance options

The availability of remittance services is important for migrant workers to support loved ones, who will have different needs for receiving money. In fact, half (53%) of migrant workers send money home via online transfers, with one in 10 use in-branch bank transfers (13%) and foreign exchange services (11%) to ensure loved ones get the money they need. This is reflected in the receiving countries – almost two-thirds (62%) of money is received in traditional bank accounts, with cash pick-up from banks (13%) and cash pick-up from a local store (10%) rounding out the top three methods.

In fact, two-thirds (66%) of migrant workers send up to £199 on average a month – with millennials appearing to be the most generous, sending on average, £16 more than those aged between 35 and 54 (£202 vs £186).

“Providing as many options as possible for services which enable instant transfers across the world is crucial for migrant workers. The UK’s historic infrastructure and innovation means it has the ability to provide many ways to do so, through remittance firms, online and in-branch transfers and foreign exchange houses. Of course, the impact of migration and remittances goes beyond putting food on the table. Remittances have a big role to play in helping to drive GDP growth and consumption within receiving countries, which in turn create new opportunities and wealth globally,” concluded Giriyan.

Comviva, the global leader in providing mobility solutions, today announced its foray into banking customer value management (CVM) by entering into a new partnership with Number Theory, an Artificial Intelligence and Enterprise Data Management firm. The partnership allows Comviva to enhance its MobiLytix^TM Real Time marketing solution with new machine learning and AI capabilities built on Number Theory’s AI @ Scale Platform.        

The partnership aims to combine Comviva’s big-data enabled, multi-channel, customer value management (CVM) platform with Number Theory’s machine learning & AI capabilities, empowering banks to grow value from their customers through continuous, intelligent and engaging interactions. The combination of real time insights and machine learning algorithms will open many new use cases that will help in furthering the innovation agenda of banks, facilitating the delivery of responsive, personalized and insight driven experiences.          

Banks will get access to real time insights, but also the capability to use that information for personalizing their services based on the customer’s unique persona and behavioral and transactional attributes.  MobiLytix^TM Real Time Marketing coupled AI @ Scale Platform will give banks a deeper and more holistic understanding of their customers to satisfy their constantly evolving needs.                                   

Speaking on the occasion Amit Sanyal, VP & Executive Head, Consumer Value Solutions, Comviva said, “In today’s digital economy, banks have to anticipate customer needs and engage proactively with them to deliver products and services that meet those needs. We are very happy to say that our enhanced MobiLytix^TM Real Time Marketing platform will help banks to transform into always connected, always engaged entities and in the process grow customer engagement, satisfaction and revenues.”

Speaking on the occasion Rajan Nagina, CEO, Number Theory said, “Banks have a huge reservoir of data, which can help them to grow value from their customers. Comviva’s deep expertise in CVM combined with our AI and Machine learning capabilities will enable banks to understand each customer uniquely and design contextual and personalized engagement leading to deeper customer engagement and increase in revenue.”

After documenting improvements in Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance over the past six years (2010 – 2016), Verizon’s 2018 Payment Security Report (PSR) now reveals a concerning downward trend with companies failing compliance assessments and perhaps, more importantly, not maintaining - full compliance. 

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) helps businesses that offer card payment facilities protect their payment systems from breaches and theft of cardholder data. PCI DSS compliance has been shown (via the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report series) to help protect payment systems from both data breachesand theft of cardholder data, so this trend is alarming.

Data gathered by Verizon’s PCI DSS qualified security assessors (QSAs) during 2017 demonstrates that PCI compliance is decreasing amongst global businesses, with only 52.4 percent of organizations maintaining full compliance in 2017, compared to 55.4 percent in 2016. Regional differences are highlighted, demonstrating that companies in the Asia-Pacific region are more likely to achieve full compliance at 77.8 percent, compared to those based in Europe (46.4 percent) and the Americas (39.7 percent). These differences can be attributed to the timing of geographical compliance rollout strategies, cultural appreciation of awards/recognition, or the maturity of IT systems.

By business sector, IT services remain on top when it comes to compliance, with over three-quarters of organizations (77.8 percent) achieving full status. Retail (56.3 percent) and financial services (47.9 percent) were significantly ahead of hospitality organizations (38.5 percent), which demonstrated the lowest compliance sustainability. With businesses often leveraging PCI DSS compliance efforts to meet the security requirements of data protection regulations, such as the European Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), this gap between the various business sectors that deal with electronic payments on a daily basis is significant.

“PCI Compliance standards are slipping across global businesses and this simply can’t continue”, comments Rodolphe Simonetti, global managing director for security consulting, Verizon. “Consumers and suppliers alike trust brands to secure their payment data, so we must act now to remedy this state of affairs.  We urge businesses to reassess their measurement methodologies for PCI control effectiveness, and to concentrate on managing the sustainability of their data protection.”

Control effectiveness and sustainability are essential

Simonetti continues: “Verizon has been at the forefront of cardholder data security since 2003, working closely with the PCI community to advance PCI DSS compliance. Based on our expertise and work in the field, we have developed nine factors which help businesses sustain their compliance levels. Our aim is to provide a clear structure and methodology to firstly help compliance personnel, but also equip them to open compliance dialogue with their board members, making the narrative easier to understand. For compliance processes to be effective, they need to be driven from the top, but often progress or challenges are not clearly communicated or understood by executives.”

Verizon’s nine factors of control effectiveness and sustainability support the 12 key requirements of the PCI DSS standard and are as follows:

• Factor 1: Control Environment: The sustainability and effectiveness of the 12 Key Requirements depends on a healthy Control Environment.
• Factor 2: Control Design: Proper control operation to meet DSS security control objectives depends on sound Control Design.
• Factor 3: Control Risk: Without on-going maintenance (security testing, risk management, etc.), controls can degrade over time and eventually break down.  Mitigation of control failures requires integrated management of Control Risk.
• Factor 4: Control Robustness: Controls operate in dynamic business and ever-changing threat environments.  They must be robust to resist unwanted change to remain functional and perform to specifications (configure standards, access control, system hardening, etc.).
• Factor 5: Control Resilience: Security controls can potentially still fail, despite adding layers of control for increased robustness, therefore control resilience withproactive discovery and quick recovery from failure is essential for effectiveness and sustainability .
• Factor 6: Control Lifecycle Management: To achieve all of the above it is necessary to monitor and actively manage security controls throughout each stage of theirlifecycle from inception to retirement. 
• Factor 7: Performance Management: Establishing and communicating performance standards to measure the actual performance of the control environment improves control effectiveness, and promotes predictable outcomes of your data protection and compliance activities, allowing for early identification and correction of performance deviations.
• Factor 8: Maturity Measurement: A control environment should never be stagnant – it must improve continuously. To do so, businesses need a roadmap, a target level of process and capability maturity to track the degree of formality and optimization of processes as indication of how close developing processes are to being complete and capable of continual improvement.
• Factor 9: Self-Assessment: Achieving all of the above requires in-house proficiency – resource capacity (people, processes and technology), capability (supporting processes), competency (skills, knowledge and experience) and commitment (the will to consistently adhere to compliance requirements) – in short a self-assessment proficiency

“Data-sharing and cross-industry collaboration is vital to understand the evolving threat landscape and to progress global payment security. As evident in this report, organizations continue to face challenges maintaining high-levels of security and demonstrating ongoing compliance in rapidly changing environments,” said Troy Leach, Chief Technology Officer of the PCI Security Standards Council. “Organizations should pay close attention to the findings in the report to remain vigilant for key learnings on how to remain secure.  Compliance should never be seen as the end goal for security but rather a measurement for an organization’s continued success in protecting data.”

In order to keep businesses on the right compliance track Verizon has also developed a comprehensive timeline within the report which charts timing for specific compliance activities.

PFU (EMEA) Limited, a Fujitsu company, the world's leading scanner manufacturer, today announced it has partnered with OptoSweden, a leading automatic document processing provider to offer small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) a new web scanning solution designed to optimise workflow. Formed of the Fujitsu fi-7300NX, and PaperStream NX Manager and OptoSweden’s CrossState software platform, the new CrossState ScanClientNX will enable users to scan documents to the cloud quickly and securely directly from the scanner.

Available now in Europe and the USA, CrossState ScanClientNX has been specifically designed to support SME’s invoicing needs through its quick and easy setup process to access and control the solution from any web browser. With a cost effective investment, the solution enables users to scan documents according to their needs, including direct to email, to OptoSweden’s secure cloud platform or as a PDF.

“The SME market forms a significant part of our customer base and we needed a partner that could support us as we continue to expand our offering, said “Niklas Lundberg, CEO, OptoSweden. “We were excited to see the capabilities and quality the fi-7300NX can deliver, and we’re happy to extend our 20-year partnership with PFU (EMEA) Limited to provide customers with a market-leading scanning solution that will enable them to securely manage their document processing.”

“While cloud computing has enabled more efficient working environments, it also has also shown to be less secure unless properly managed,” explains Mike Nelson, Senior Vice President, PFU (EMEA) Limited. “By establishing partnerships with independent software vendors such as OptoSweden, we’re helping SMEs around the world to manage their invoicing management needs via a fast and secure cloud infrastructure, so they can focus on growing their businesses.”

The CrossState ScanClientNX is:

• Secure: Operating over a dedicated managed cloud service, users can upload sensitive information quickly and securely.
• Easy and quick to set up: Users can choose what they want to do with their documents with one click, including scan to email and PDF functionality
• Cost effective investment: The scanning choices available to customers means they focus on optimising their business processes and investments, rather than wasting time and money with lots of different solutions

The CrossState ScanClientNX is powered by Fujitsu’s fi-7300NX. Launched in early September, the fi-7300NX is the latest device in Fujitsu’s best-selling fi range of scanners. It enables scanning without the need for a computer, secure document capture and a flexible range of integration solutions, offering full automation of document management processes.

For more information on the fi-7300NX scanner, click here. OptoSweden will be demonstrating the CrossState ScanClientNX on Stand E:20 at Ekonomi & Företag in Stockholm 26-27 September.

Spotcap today announced Sophie Peacock as the winner of the Fintech Fellowship for 2018. Running for its second consecutive year, the Fellowship awards one UK-based masters or MBA student with an £8k scholarship. By supporting aspiring talent, the initiative aims to plug the fintech skills gap by raising awareness of career opportunities in the field.

The UK currently stands at the forefront of the global financial technology field. Last year, the industry employed 61,000 individuals and attracted £600 million in investment. However, a skills gap is already being observed: 58 per cent of UK FinTech Census 2017 respondents reported that attracting qualified talent is one of the top three challenges in sustaining the industry's growth.

The first of its kind, the Fintech Fellowship aims to narrow the talent gap by encouraging aspiring talent like Sophie to pursue their interest in financial technology. Forty-one universities backed the initiative this year, sharing information about the fellowship and career opportunities in fintech with their incoming classes.

A recent graduate from Durham University with a first-class honours degree in Mathematics, Sophie will use the scholarship to support her MSc in Data Science and Machine Learning at UCL. “A year-long placement at IBM sparked my interest in fintech. This sector is having a huge impact on the way people think about their finances, and I would love to be a part of the continuing wave of innovation,” says Sophie. “During my masters programme, I hope to gain a more in-depth understanding of how complex algorithms like neural networks can contribute to the development of the financial technology industry.”

The Fintech Fellowship brought together five industry experts who jointly agreed that Sophie was the best candidate to win the Fellowship this year. Niels Turfboer, Managing Director of Spotcap UK and  member of the judging panel, comments: "Sophie is an extremely talented and driven student and we hope the scholarship will help her pursue her passion for innovation in technology and finance."

He continues: “The skills gap is real, and the industry needs to take action. If each fintech organisation brings its own approach to addressing the issue and helps raise awareness of the many exciting career paths available, the UK talent pipeline would benefit.”

Additional members of the Spotcap Fintech Fellowship include: Marilena Ioannidou, Director & Team Lead on Fintech Investments at British Business Investment; Stephen Ingledew, Chief Executive at FinTech Scotland; Tanya Andreasyan, Managing Director and Editor at Fintech Futures and Elizabeth Lumley, global fintech commentator and advisor.

To read more about the UK Fellowship, visit our dedicated site: https://www.spotcap.co.uk/fintech-fellowship/

Citi has announced the launch of its new global solution, 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. 

The in-house solution leverages the strength of Citi’s on the ground presence whilst delivering a globally consistent offering and is live with clients in Western Europe covering 16 markets and 37 currencies, with the U.S. and Asia to follow.

Manish Kohli, Global Head of Payments and Receivables, Treasury and Trade Solutions, Citi, commented: “Citi’s investment in proprietary virtual account technology exemplifies our commitment to providing clients with simple, global and digital solutions. Citi’s virtual account solution is a strategic enabler for corporate treasuries of both our traditional and digital clients, providing a platform for benefits such as bank account rationalization and automated reconciliation.”

“Citi’s virtual account solution is designed to be fully adaptable to our clients needs, allowing treasurers to tailor banking structures to their unique requirements. With a centralized view of real-time cash positions, corporate treasuries can optimize liquidity management and make more informed funding decisions,” added Mark Smith, Global Head of Liquidity Management Services, Treasury and Trade Solutions, Citi.

The flexibility offered by Citi’s solution allows clients to individually view transaction activity, manage online banking entitlements and generate virtual account statements. Virtual account structures can be configured for a single entity or support the “On Behalf Of” model of an in-house bank. From an accounts receivables perspective, clients can harness additional transparency by using Citi^® Virtual Accounts in conjunction with Citi^® Payer ID Accounts to further automate the reconciliation process. In addition to servicing treasury needs, the capabilities can also be used as a business enabler for emerging client segments including digital marketplaces and the sharing economy.

Petra Rosenauer, EMEA Treasurer of Flex Ltd commented: “Citi’s virtual account solution differentiated itself by allowing Flex to convert existing Citi physical accounts into virtual accounts. We’re very pleased with the solution and are moving into the second phase of our bank account rationalization project.”

Signicat, a leader in trusted digital identity, has joined the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), the recognised standards body for electronic communications. As part of the technical committee on Electronic Signatures and Infrastructure (ESI), Signicat will help create and shape the standards for digital signatures and trust services.

ETSI is officially recognised by the EU as one of three European Standards Organisations (ESO), with a focus on broadcasting, telecommunications and other electronic communications networks and services. ETSI produces “harmonised standards” that support European regulation and enable manufacturers and suppliers to prove that their products and services meet these regulations.

ESI is the technical committee responsible for the standardisation of European digital signature and trust services. The standards produced by ESI are designed to meet the demands of eIDAS regulation, ensuring interoperability across borders, and be applicable beyond Europe.

Signicat—already standards-compliant—will be able to share its experience and knowledge of electronic signatures and digital identity to help guide the development of these standards. Currently in development are standards for signature validation services, which specify how a signed document will be sent to a trusted service, returning a signature validation report.

“The work of ETSI, ESI and eIDAS is solving the fragmentation that currently exists across Europe, and will make using digital trust services across the continent simple,” said John Erik Setsaas, VP of Identity and Innovation, Signicat. “Our membership of the technical committee that drives the creation of these standards gives us an opportunity to influence their development, bringing our first-hand experience of creating trust services that work across borders.”

For more detail on the ongoing work of the technical committee and its roadmap, read Signicat’s blog post: https://www.signicat.com/blog/signicat-joins-etsi-for-standardisation-of-digital-signatures-and-trust-services/

Finastra has launched Fusion Essence in the cloud, a fully integrated core and digital solution, localized for the UK Market. Deployed on Azure, Microsoft’s enterprise-ready, trusted cloud platform, it is available to all banks, but is particularly suited to ambitious challenger banks, enabling them to come to market with velocity and allowing them to launch personalized offerings first and fast, maintaining a competitive edge.

Anand Subbaraman, General Manager, Retail Banking at Finastra said, “The launch of our first fully integrated cloud-based retail solution in the UK, operated by us - as opposed to licensed by us - is a significant step for Finastra. It reflects our progressive journey from a product-centric organization five or six years ago, to a solution and service driven Fintech company. Embracing a tailored retail banking solution in the cloud that gives challenger banks quick access to a comprehensive end-to-end technology offering provides them with the speed that is critical to their success. This is essential in a competitive UK market where more banks secure licenses and others look towards consolidation with larger traditional institutions.”

Fusion Essence in the cloud frees banks from the burden of IT operations with a pay-as-you-go subscription model. Covering all UK core and digital banking requirements, including lending, digitally originated deposits, payments and regulatory reporting, it is fully integrated with third-party providers for credit reference checks as part of AML and KYC processes and regulatory reporting. An accelerated onboarding approach powered by Fusion Essence in the cloud enables banks to launch first and, importantly, to drive fast customer adoption and business growth once live.

Feargal de Burca, Technology Director at KPMG, which worked alongside Finastra to build the solution said, “It’s been great to work with Finastra and Microsoft to create something innovative that supports the UK banks and building societies. The sector is changing at pace and in order to stay ahead of customer expectations, banks need to be agile, efficient and creative. I’m proud of our involvement in this unique banking service proposition.”

Craig Focardi, Senior Analyst at Celent, reflects on the move to cloud, “Innovative banks of all sizes are seeking to achieve ‘first mover’ advantages by migrating some or all of their IT services to the cloud in the pursuit of greater agility and cost competitiveness.”

Prospects joining the Fusion Essence customer community do so at a time of increasing interest in Finastra’s new open platform for innovation,FusionFabric.cloud. Customers can now join the journey and co-create the future of finance together with Finastra and its vibrant partner ecosystem.

Framework, a specialist global solutions vendor for Private Equity (PE) and Real Estate (RE) investments, has made a senior hire to its leadership team to meet demand for its enterprise investment accounting data management solutions.
 

Framework today announced the appointment of Alan Naughton as CEO. The appointment will strengthen the leadership team as Framework concentrate on accelerating their current growth and focus on innovation in PE and RE investment data management.

The appointment of Alan, together with other key hires from a mix of investment operations and technology backgrounds in recent months, reflects Framework’s ongoing commitment to meet the demand for improved investment data and service management in the PERE sector.

Alan brings with him more than 30 years of global banking and investment servicing experience acquired in multiple geographic locations in leading financial institutions. Most recently, Alan was head of Standard Chartered Bank’s securities services and corporate agency and trust business, based in Singapore, having joined in 2012 from JPMorgan in London where he had been Head of Commercial Management for the Global Funds Division since 2008.

Launched in 2000, Framework provides enterprise investment accounting data management solutions designed to deliver transparency, insight and accountability for all stakeholders in PERE investment.

Framework is undergoing a period of growth and change in line with the PERE sector. The industry is experiencing higher investor allocations, higher investor expectations, and recognition by leading Investment Managers and Asset Servicers that they need to scale operations in response to the demands of alternative asset investors. Added to this, increasing regulation means that investors are demanding full visibility of their investment managers’ processes.

Harnessing 18 years’ expertise and experience in the sector, Framework’s solution is evolving to meet the investment data management needs of PERE Administrators and Custodians, their clients, and their investors. Framework makes PERE investment accounting accessible to all stakeholders.

Bertil Rouveure, Executive Chairman of Framework, said: “Alan and I have worked together successfully over a number of years, so it is great to add his global asset servicing experience to the Framework leadership team.”

Paul Whapham, COO of Framework, said: “Alan’s appointment strengthens our position in the PERE sector at a time when our clients and potential clients are driving hard to adopt operating models which will cope with scale and change”.

Alan Naughton, CEO of Framework, said: “I am greatly looking forward to helping Framework continue to grow and develop its solution for the global PERE industry. It is my task, and our ambition, to engage with the biggest and the best in PERE investment and asset servicing. I am excited to be working with a proven, high performance team, and am delighted to be working again with Bertil.”