Published
Paul Herdman
Vice President at EMEA Qumu
To most organisations this should sound like a question with an obvious answer - a good live streaming event usually means clear audio, a decent picture and a tolerable amount of see more
Alan Platt
COO at CyberHive
Cyber-attacks are now one of the biggest threats to the UK financial system according to respondents in a recent Bank of England survey¹. see more
Jordan Schwartz
Head of Software at Cordium
Compliance professionals face an ever-greater range of obligations. see more
- 03:00 am
Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) and Network International, the leading payment solutions provider in the Middle East and Africa, recently signed an agreement to provide Network International’s bespoke acquiring processing solutions to CBD’s wholesale banking clients.
With this partnership, CBD’s wholesale banking clients will benefit from Network International’s best-in-class payments technology, acquiring processing expertise, and Point-of-Sale (POS) services.
Speaking on the significance of the partnership, Dr. Bernd van Linder, said, "We are very proud to partner with Network International to offer POS solutions to our key wholesale banking clients. As one of the leading banks in providing cash management solutions in the UAE, we are always looking to add value and offer bespoke services to our existing clients and adding POS services to our current payments and cash management offering will be a great value addition for our clients.”
Samer Soliman, Managing Director - Middle East, Network International, said “We are delighted to have been chosen by CBD, one of the leading commercial banks in the country, to boost their acquiring processing capabilities. Network International has gained in reputation as the UAE’s largest acquirer and we are confident that CBD’s wholesale banking clients will benefit from our expertise and experience in providing bespoke payment solutions that integrate cost-effectiveness, compliance, and process efficiency.”
Commercial Bank of Dubai is recognized as one of the leading banks in the UAE in cash management solutions and is always at the forefront in bringing banking innovations to the market. CBD was recognized as the ‘Best Cash Management’ Bank in the UAE, by Banker Middle East in 2017 and 2018.
- 08:00 am
Shieldpay has increased its global footprint by launching in the US by partnering with the car classified site, AutoClassics.com. Shieldpay enabled the site to become fully transactional to its customers for the first time across the UK, EU and US.
Shieldpay’s transparent payment solution mitigates the risk of fraud by verifying the identity of both parties, holding funds securely and only releasing funds when both sides agree they are happy with the transaction. The payment solution is set to transform classified sites to fully transactional marketplaces, bringing transparency and efficiency to the payment while also reducing the risk of fraud.
AutoClassics.com has integrated the Shieldpay API to power payments, listings, bids and offers for its dealers and consumers. Classifieds and marketplaces can leverage Shieldpay’s API to create their own user experience or make use of Shieldpay’s ‘ready to user’ user interface.
Consumers will no longer have to carry large sums of cash when meeting a stranger or wire money blindly when buying a car from someone they’ve met online. Consumers will also benefit from innovative features like Shieldpay’s Driveway Checkout™ where they can negotiate the price of the car on the driveway and simply authorise the payment in-app to complete the sale.
Shieldpay’s Director of Consumer & SMB, Tom Clementson, says that the technology will allow classified sites to ‘fight back’ against disruptors like Facebook Marketplace and start competing for more of the USD$1 trillion1 marketplaces globally. Clementson also believes that Shieldpay’s trusted payments network will fill the void in the payments industry for life’s big purchases, or when dealing with someone you don’t know.
Tom Clementson, Director of Consumer & SMB of Shieldpay, comments: “While PayPal are great for low value, every day spend, we secure larger payments between users that have been verified by Shieldpay, which addresses a huge gap in the market.
“Taking Shieldpay to the US was the next logical step. The size and scale of online marketplaces, globally, is over UDD $1 trillion - and that figure even excludes classifieds sites, which don’t yet accept payments. This opportunity is huge, yet classifieds and marketplaces are under-served by secure solutions for larger payments. Classified sites have come under increasing pressure from disruptors and we believe our technology will allow them to fight back and transform their business models - taking them from traditional listing sites to transactional marketplaces and building an instant new revenue stream.”
Geoff Love, CEO of AutoClassics, comments: “We’re proud to partner with Shieldpay as an innovative payments solution that has allowed us to become transactional for the first time. Shieldpay gives our users total confidence that they can buy and sell securely on AutoClassics.com. Our users will also benefit from Shieldpay’s verified user badge that signals to the buyer or seller that the other user is part of the trusted payments network.”
As well as protecting life’s big purchases like buying or selling a car, Shieldpay’s instant digital escrow facility can accelerate multi-million-pound M&A deals and real estate transactions, having recently powered the UK’s first fully digital real estate transaction.
- 06:00 am
NetGuardians, the award-winning Swiss fintech, announced today that it has become an Avaloq certified software partner for real-time fraud prevention.
Avaloq is an international fintech and leader in integrated banking solutions. More than 150 banks and wealth managers use its software worldwide, including many Tier 1 banks. Total client assets managed exceed CHF 4,000bn.
“We are delighted that NetGuardians has become an Avaloq certified software partner,” says Avaloq CTO Thomas Beck. “The new adaptor is fully compatible with the Avaloq Banking Suite and will make it quicker and easier for banks to adopt NetGuardians’ effective fraud mitigation solution.”
NetGuardians co-founder and chief executive Joël Winteregg says: “We are proud to be a certified Avaloq software partner and part of the growing Avaloq community. We already have one Avaloq bank in Asia using the NetGuardians anti-fraud solution. Becoming a certified partner means we can quickly help more banks and wealth managers around the world in their fight against fraud, which has got to be good for them and their customers.”
Banks worldwide face a growing challenge from fraudsters who are adopting increasingly sophisticated methods. Fraud and other forms of cyber-crime are expected to cost US$6 trillion a year by 2021*. At the same time, banks must also demonstrate to regulators that they are doing all they can to protect customers’ accounts or face big fines.
NetGuardians’ solution uses advanced analytics, dynamic profiling and machine learning to build highly accurate customer and employee profiles. It then uses these profiles to spot in real time fraud attempts on any channel, including ebanking and mbanking that may involve collusion between employees, manipulation of customer accounts, social engineering, invoice redirection and CEO fraud. Suspicious transactions are identified, and alerts automatically sent to the appropriate staff for swift resolution.
Banks running NetGuardians achieve dramatically higher rates of accuracy in correctly identifying fraudulent transactions, cutting the number of false positives by 83 per cent. The result is a better customer experience and lower operational costs. Fraud investigation time is cut by 93 per cent.
- 08:00 am
Visa, the world leader in digital payments, and Startupbootcamp, the leading network of innovation programs accelerating startups worldwide, hosted “FastTrack”, a mentoring session for startups participating in the Dubai Smart City Accelerator, which is hosted in Dubai Technology Entrepreneur Centre (dtec), the largest hub of its kind in the Middle East that is wholly owned by Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA).
At FastTrack sessions, applicants for this year’s program are invited to pitch to a panel of senior industry mentors. Following the presentations by the startups, the panel provides them with feedback and mentoring. Shortlisted teams will be invited to attend an event in Dubai in mid-August where ten finalists will be selected to join the three-month accelerator program that kicks-off in September.
The FastTrack sessions provide ample networking opportunities for startups specializing in Internet of Things (IoT) and connectivity, urban automation and smart transportation, open city data, sustainable cities and living, smart government, smart retail, artificial intelligence and blockchain.
Commenting on this initiative, Otto Williams, Head Strategic Partnerships, Fintech and Ventures at Visa, said: “Visa is proud to support Dubai Smart City Accelerator as we work collectively on the mission to provide start-ups with the right support, and mentorship to thrive and shape the course of smart cities in the future. The startups who presented during the FastTrack session are focusing on how to develop smart solutions using emerging technologies such as Internet of Things, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence for the benefit of getting governments, citizens, visitors, and businesses up to speed in an intelligent, connected ecosystem. Hosting this mentoring session at Visa’s Innovation Center in Dubai provided a creative environment to help stimulate the advancement of smart commerce and digital payment infrastructure, which is an integral component of smart cities and startup communities.”
"We run Fasttracks across the globe to support startups and help them make valuable business connections before they ever come into our program. Hosting over 300 sessions per year enables us to expand our global footprint and gain access to the top companies from all around the world,” said Pelin G. Şahin, SBC Smart City Dubai Director.
For his part, William Chappell, Chief Financial Officer of DSOA, said: “Dtec is pleased to partner with leading brands such as Visa in its continued quest to enhance its services for startups that seek to make our city smarter. We are confident our collaboration will play a key role in shaping the UAE’s economic landscape through identifying solutions for smart buildings, smart transportation and logistics, smart living, as well as smart urban planning and facilities management.”
- 02:00 am
Leading public blockchain Nebulas and Egretia, the world's first HTML5 blockchain engine and platform have announced a partnership that will see the two projects collaborate on blockchain games, fostering developer communities, and developing new content platforms. This cooperation aims to create new value and experimentation in blockchain, and promote user adoption for the technology.
Blockchain applications in China remain at an early stage. The infrastructure to support these decentralized apps (dApps) is not yet mature, and the use cases are not compelling enough for mass market yet. Nebulas and Egretia will work together on these problems by encouraging developers and creating the optimal conditions for high-quality content to emerge.
The partnership unites a project building foundational blockchain infrastructure, and another building blockchain infrastructure for a specific field (gaming). By forming partnerships between generalized blockchain platforms and specialized blockchain developers, the popularization of blockchain application may be accelerated.
Nebulas is a leading next-generation blockchain platform. It was a top-ranked blockchain in the Global Public Chain Evaluation released on June 20 by CCID Research, under the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's (MIIT). The Nebulas main network (Eagle Nebula 1.0) is the only blockchain that uses the LLVM compiler, and it features a transaction capacity of 2000 TPS, as well as secure and stable infrastructure. Moreover, the platform is developer-friendly and supports JavaScript to write smart contracts.
Egretia is the world's first blockchain platform powered by HTML5. By combining existing HTML5 technology with the blockchain, the project has created the world's first complete blockchain game development toolset. Egretia facilitates blockchain game development and enables digital assets to circulate between games. It has also built four core platforms, including a distributed communication and storage cloud platform, a game distribution platform, a virtual collectibles trading platform, and an advertising and incubation platform. Altogether, Egretia provides a comprehensive blockchain ecosystem for game players, game developers, gaming channels, and advertisers.
The partnership is promising given the respective attributes of each project.
In particular, the Nebulas Incentive Program has incubated a number of high-quality gaming dApps, for example, Cell Evolution, Dinosaur Paradise, Hidden World OL and Genesis of The Dinosaur Planet. Some of these have attracted attention from the blockchain and investor community. Cell Evolution received a 5 million RMB investment, while Hidden World OL has received offers from NEO, Qtum, EOS, to develop the game on their blockchain platforms. Egretia meanwhile focuses on creating robust blockchain technology for the gaming industry. Both Nebulas and Egretia therefore have a strong basis for the field of blockchain games.
At the same time, both Nebulas and Egretia are developer-friendly platforms. Nebulas supports smart contracts written in JavaScript, the world's most popular programming language, and therefore lowers the barriers to entry for developers to build dApps. Egretia achieves something similar by pairing blockchain with HTML5, a popular programming language for web development and games.
The partnership will focus especially in the following areas:
Technical cooperation. The Nebulas blockchain will support smooth docking of dApps built with Egretia. This means dApps built using Egretia's workflow can be published on the Nebulas mainnet at the click of a button. Gaming, along with the financial sector, is widely seen as the home of blockchain's next "killer" app. Nebulas and Egretia's partnership hopes to accelerate the arrival of a killer blockchain-based game by make it easier to develop and deploy such dApps.
Community cooperation. Nebulas and Egretia have already built strong a foundation with their respective developer communities, and both are now committed to working together to further promote active blockchain development. The Nebulas Incentive Program underscores how highly Nebulas values blockchain development. A large number of developers participated in the Program. Within two months, the number of registered users exceeded 170,000, developer accounts exceeded 2300, and nearly 7,000 dApps (more than twice as many as Ethereum) had been deployed on the mainnet.
Public chain ecosystem. Nebulas aims to create a sustainable public chain ecosystem that improves continuously. Accomplishing this requires the participation of outstanding partners in various fields. For example, last month, distributed cloud computing platform DeepcloudAI and the blockchain security enterprise Certik announced they have joined the Nebulas ecosystem. The partnership with Egretia is the latest step by Nebulas to enrich its ecosystem.
As an active attempt, the strategic cooperation will surely accelerate the popularization of the blockchain, expand the blockchain user scenarios and release more value.
- 09:00 am
Cashaa, a nextgen banking platform, conducted a highly successful Token Sale to solve the problems for individuals and businesses related to banking. Among its customers are the coming generation of businesses who are conducting ICOs and Token Sales themselves.
Cashaa's compliant Token Sale and strict policy resulted in the rejection of more than 14 Million USD which set an outstanding example in the industry. Cashaa's clean and audited source of funds is standing out in front of regulators and is helping Cashaa to acquire regulatory permission to realize its vision of a new generation banking system.
Cashaa is targeting the companies who want to follow strict KYC and AML guidelines during and after their token sale. Cashaa's compliance API can be embedded by businesses to solve the AML and KYC issues in minutes and allows thousands of other verified individuals to participate in their ICO with a single click. Any entity which follows the regulations and compliance standards set by Cashaa will get a business banking facility. Furthermore, bank accounts will also be available to community members of these businesses, enabling them to seamlessly manage crypto and fiat currency.
Bubblo's token sale is the first token sale who realised the potential of CAS and decided to accept CAS tokens for its banking utility during its upcoming token sale. Bubblo is an AI based discovery App powered by IBM Watson's supercomputer. Bubblo has already partnered with illustrious names such as Airbnb, Uber, Fox Studios and EROS International and raised 6.2 Million USD out of its 20 Million USD hard cap, nearly reaching their soft cap of 8 Million USD before the presale starting on 25th July 2018.
Bubblo enables its users to discover, review and pay food, beverage and retail venues in a decentralised way. Venues can be filtered by price, type, cuisine etc., including live videos and photos available within the BubbloApp, giving visitors a feel of the venue before they visit.
CAS token will be used as a payment method to reward users in participating and providing data through venues. CAS can also be used by businesses to pay their suppliers and by any related company to pay for advertisement in the BubbloApp.
- 03:00 am
