Published
- 01:00 am
Leading London-based fintech company TransferWise announced today (6 July 2018) the official launch of its international money transfer platform in Hong Kong, giving it a major foothold in Asia as part of the company's ongoing international expansion.
TransferWise operates on the concept of matching up transfers with other people on the digital platform. It uses the mid-market rate, which is only a fraction of the rates used by traditional currency transfer operators. After a successful pilot period, TransferWise has already been able to drop prices for customers transferring money from Hong Kong by more than 20 per cent, Mr Käärmann said.
"Over 3 million people across the world use TransferWise as a fair and easy way to manage their money across borders. Hong Kong represents a key market for TransferWise. Over 4 per cent of Hong Kong's population are foreigners, and many Hongkongers are living in other parts of the world. Hong Kong also has a long, rich history as a world leading economy and home of international commerce," he added.
Associate Director-General of Investment Promotion Dr Jimmy Chiang said, "I'm excited to see TransferWise making its foothold in Hong Kong. This is a big step not only for the company but also for Hong Kong as we are committed to becoming a leading fintech city in the world. TransferWise's decision to set up in our city is a win-win for both."
Tony Bethell
VP Strategic Alliances at ClusterSeven
As organisations raced towards the compliance deadline for the GDPR, their focus appeared to be simply to identify the inventory of IT supported assets that hold GDPR sensitive data. see more
- 06:00 am
SINGAPORE – The largest B2B & B2C event Traders Fair & Gala Night Singapore organized by FINEXPO is going to take place on October 26, 2018 at Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre. Traders Fair & Gala Night Singapore is about to become the biggest world Financial Expo-Forum covering Financial and FX Trading Industry as well as it claims the role of the most favorable way to build up the business connections and widen industrial knowledge.
Traders Fair & Gala Night Singapore (World Forum-Exhibition) is expected to welcome over 50 speakers and 5 000 attendees from all over the world where everyone will get an opportunity to take part in the biggest show filled with exhibitor booths, lounges, bars, Speaker Hall and Workshop rooms. This event will include not only large exhibition, panels and diversity of discussions, but also entertaining magic shows, lucky draws, fantastic prizes, live performances and huge Awards and Gala Night party.
The event agenda is in line with the latest trends and developments of the industry. Visitors will get the opportunity to meet with the best trading experts and best trading companies, banks, money brokers from around the world. Traders Fair & Gala Night Singapore should become number one space where financial and forex technology meets money, financial and forex technology and money meets people, people meet new ideas and ideas become reality.
The diversity of topics of presentations and workshops is just amazing and includes Retail FX Heading, Regulation, Cryptocurrencies, global macro trading, trading in the age of fake news and many others. So far participants will be able to devote time to the current issues of the stocks, futures, options and forex markets and meet amazing people from the industry. It is not that everywhere and every day you can meet such a huge number of traders and investors in one place.
To become a part of this fascinating world, you should download the event mobile app at https://singapore.tradersfair.com/ and register there. Each registered user will be provided with free access to the world of trading and investment.
As FINEXPO is the first and most influential financial event and fair producing company in the world since 2002 and its history of the organized events counts over 30 000 traders, investors and financial advisors with more than 3 000 financial companies and brokers on Stock, Option, Forex, Bond and Forward markets, Traders Fair & Gala Night Singapore promises to become one of the greatest events for traders in Asia.
- 07:00 am
The eleventh Emerging Payments Awards will be back at the Hilton, Park Lane in London on Wednesday 10th October. This year the Awards will be hosted by stand-up Canadian/Irish comedian, Katherine Ryan, best known for co-hosting ‘Your face or Mine’ alongside Jimmy Carr. The Awards will host more than 700 guests, including the industry’s most senior decision-makers from across the globe. With 30% more entries this year and 55% tables already taken, the ceremony is bound to be a sell-out.
The judges were particularly impressed with the variety of submissions from all over the world. 40% were first-time entrants and nearly 70% from outside the Emerging Payments Association membership. Submissions demonstrated examples of high-quality, effective and innovative payment solutions and organisations. The 30% increase in submissions reinforces the relevance of the Awards, which includes new and revised categories to reflect changes in the industry. Popular categories included: Best Financial Payments Programme, Best B2B Payments Programme, Best Collaboration Initiative, Best Back Office Innovation, Best Customer Facing Experience and, of course, Leading Emerging Payments Organisation.
Submissions were judged by an elite panel of 40 international judges, chaired by John Chaplin, Helios Advisors. and finalists for 19 of the 20 categories were announced at the Emerging Payments Association’s Summer Party in London. The final category, for “Emerging Payments Industry Contributor of the Year” will be judged separately, with the winner also announced at the ceremony in October.
Finalists for the 2018 Emerging Payments Awards by category
1. Best International Payments, Remittance or use of FX
Currencycloud
Post Office
PrePay Solutions
Saxo Payments Banking Circle
UAE Exchange
2. Best Consumer Funded Payments Programme
Fortress GB with Wirecard
Glint with Wirecard
Their Perfect Gift with Wirecard
Thomas Cook Money
U Account with Wirecard
3. Best Financial Inclusion Payments Programme
Contis
Mahindra Comviva
Pockit
TPay Mobile...
- 03:00 am
Western Union has been providing fast, reliable and convenient money transfer services in Ivory Coast since 1995
Western Union (www.WesternUnion.com), a leader in global cross-border, cross-currency money movement, announced today the opening of an office in Ivory Coast, reinforcing the company’s on-going commitment to service excellence by getting even closer to customers.
Western Union has been providing fast, reliable and convenient money transfer services in Ivory Coast since 1995, connecting customers to over half a million locations in more than 200 countries and territories. Western Union services are currently available in Ivory Coast at more than 1,600 agent locations and via bank accounts and mobile wallets.
To commemorate the opening of the new office premises, which is located in Rue du Dr. Crozet, Immeuble XL Abidjan Plateau, the Western Union leadership team - Odilon Almeida, President, Global Money Transfer; Alexandru Badulescu, General Manager, Middle East and Africa and Awa Gueye Ba, Regional Director, West Africa, visited Ivory Coast.
“Western Union is committed to Ivory Coast. We are uniquely positioned at the intersection of digital and retail and are proud to be investing our resources to support and serve the local economy and customer base. This office will serve as the regional hub for West Africa,” said Odilon Almeida, President, Global Money Transfer.
According to World Bank (www.WorldBank.org/en/country/cotedivoire/overview), Côte d’Ivoire’s economic growth is ranked among the most robust on the African continent. Additionally, greater numbers of West African migrants appear to be seeking opportunities in emerging economies on the continent such as the Ivory Coast, according to the Migration and Remittances Brief by World Bank (https://goo.gl/DBY73E).
“Over the years we have connected Ivorian diaspora to their families and loved ones. Ivory Coast is a flourishing economy and in line with our strategy to connect digital with the physical, combining our online presence with our retail distribution network, we are very pleased to be setting up our office in-market, affirming our commitment to the Ivorian community and our agents,” added Almeida.
Western Union has operated in Africa for over 20 years. With an extensive network of over 40,000 Agent locations, many in remote and hard to reach areas, and payout capabilities to billions of bank accounts and mobile wallets worldwide, Western Union serves millions of senders and receivers and continues to invest in providing much needed access to the people of Africa.
Richard Price
Head of Financial Services Practice – UK&I at TIBCO
Why now is the time for pension providers to address the requirements of the Pensions Dashboard project see more
- 01:00 am
In line with its new business and innovation strategy, Maalem Financing has signed an agreement with Path Solutions, the Islamic banking software specialist, in which iMAL Islamic core banking platform will be rolled out progressively at the company’s headquarters.
Founded in 2009 and licensed by the Saudi Arabia Monetary Authority (SAMA), Maalem Financing is a non-banking finance company (NBFC) delivering Sharia-based finance services to individuals and SMEs in Saudi Arabia. The company has reported brisk growth in its financing portfolio, consisting of a variety of Murabaha products receivables in the first quarters of 2017.
The iMAL Islamic core banking platform will replace legacy system at Maalem Financing. The new Islamic platform will form a key part of Maalem Financing’s new strategy aiming to embrace the opportunities of technological advances to meet their customers’ current and future needs and expectations.
“Our selection of iMAL highlights our commitment to technology and innovation”, commented Dr. Saleh Al Sayari, CEO of Maalem Financing. “We invest in technology to deliver innovative solutions and convenience to our customers. Path Solutions offered the best match to what we want to do. The company possesses the right technology to fulfill our vision. iMAL will improve our ability to bring new Sharia-compliant products to market quickly and will also support our ambitious growth plans”.
Mohammed Kateeb, the Group Chairman & CEO of Path Solutions stated, “We are delighted to be working with Maalem Financing on this new project implementation in Riyadh. By selecting iMAL integrated, front-to-back platform, Maalem Financing puts itself in a position to differentiate its customer proposition in a highly competitive marketplace, with the ability to scale its business for growth. Our set of services has the capacity to accommodate their business and the all-important journey toward modernization as part of the company’s focus on innovation and keeping abreast of developments in the field of information technology, to provide its customers with the opportunity to get instant customer fulfilment and comprehensive Sharia-based services”.
It was important for Maalem Financing to put a reliable core banking platform with an advanced system architecture in place. Used by more than 130 Islamic financial institutions worldwide, iMAL real-time, innovative and integrated platform is designed to reduce their infrastructure costs at the same time as enabling them to benefit from open banking solutions.
- 05:00 am
ITRS Group (“ITRS”), the leading provider of real-time monitoring and IT operations analytics to financial services firms, has announced a partnership with Apica, industry leaders in performance monitoring for enterprise business. Following ITRS’ recent acquisition of Sumerian, a leader in capacity planning, this partnership with Apica will mean ITRS can now offer performance modelling from the front-end user systems such as a website or mobile, all the way through to back-end infrastructure and application servers, and present a single view of the complete technology estate in one dashboard.
Customers can ensure that critical technology estates such as trading applications, banking apps and payment portals have maximum uptime, performance and are ready for peak conditions so customers have a seamless and uninterrupted experience.
Mark Loader, Director of Product Management, Marketing & Partners at ITRS, said: “Our customers are increasingly asking us for solutions to monitor customer facing websites and applications that need to be available 24/7. With a host of recent IT failures affecting millions of customers’ user journeys and experience, but also critically their ability to conduct financial transactions and pay for essentials, the need for robust synthetic monitoring and load testing is critical from a reputational point of view, and increasingly from a regulatory point of view.”
“Our partnership with ITRS will combine both of our market leading solutions and experience to help joint customers accelerate their digital transformation" said Sven Hammar, CEO at Apica. "This joint offering provides complete monitoring coverage for both transaction centric applications and mixed enterprise environments. By implementing proactive testing through synthetic monitoring and load testing customers quickly reduce the risks of operational failures and minimize any resulting downtime."
- 02:00 am
Finastra has been positioned as a Category Leader in the Chartis RiskTech Quadrants for both banking book and trading book credit risk solutions. The rankings are featured in a recent report published by Chartis, titled Technology Solutions for Credit Risk 2.0, 2018, which assesses the technologies that are addressing the speed, flexibility and risk profile of the lending market.
“Credit risk very rarely exists as a distinct component in a software product, but almost always as part of a value chain,” said Rob Stubbs, Head of Research at Chartis Research. “In an increasingly complex credit environment, financial institutions—and their vendors—must be able to manage the whole value chain, not just credit risk. By understanding where in the operational process credit risk sits, financial institutions can ensure they have an efficient process in place.”
According to Chartis, there has been a structural shift in the way that credit is provided, consumed, and analyzed in recent years. Now, following the impact of Basel II on the way financial institutions systemized their credit assessment and analysis, a digital revolution is once again transforming the credit risk market. Chartis is calling this new normal ‘Credit Risk 2.0.’ In the wake of this transformation, new operational issues and challenges are impacting liquidity management. Financial institutions must reassess how vendors are able to meet their needs and demands. Based on specific credit risk capabilities, including data management and stress testing, Finastra earned Category Leader status for both the banking book and the trading book.
“Excellence in a broad range of credit risk capabilities has placed Finastra among the industry leaders on the Chartis RiskTech Quadrants for credit solutions, in terms of both the completeness of our offering and our market potential,” said Arnaud Picut, Global Head of Risk Management at Finastra. “This reflects a solution set that provides value beyond just compliance, offering a strategic path to transformation, with access to micro-services that form the foundation to unite disparate data sets across the organization while adding performance, scalability, and visibility for timely and better decision-making.”
Finastra Fusion Risk comprises five risk modules that can be combined to suit a financial organization’s specific needs, empowering financial institutions to address two interconnected goals: meeting short-term regulatory demands and optimizing business performance. Fusion Risk provides a fully automated, end-to-end IFRS9/CECL solution. Integrated out of the box with Finastra’s core banking, lending and trading solutions, it features best-of-breed impairment and credit risk modeling.
- 06:00 am
Gemini Trust Company, LLC (Gemini), a digital asset exchange and custodian, announced today that Robert Cornish has joined as its first-ever Chief Technology Officer.
Mr. Cornish will be responsible for leading Gemini’s technology team and strategy. Mr. Cornish most recently served as Chief Information Officer of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), where he led the NYSE technology team. Mr. Cornish will begin with Gemini later this month.
“Rob is a tremendous addition to our team. He will ensure that Gemini continues to deliver the best platform experience to our customers as possible and set the standards of excellence for the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. Rob is globally recognized for his abilities in leading high-performing engineering teams, his expertise in exchange and matching-engine architecture, and running high-throughput platforms that are both secure and resilient,” said Tyler Winklevoss, Chief Executive Officer, Gemini.
Mr. Cornish joins at a time of incredible growth for Gemini, which recently became the first licensed Zcash exchange in the world upon obtaining approval from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) to offer trading and custody services for Zcash to its customers. The NYDFS also approved Gemini to offer Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin for trading and custody, which will be available in the coming months. In addition to being responsible for Gemini’s technology team, architecture, and strategy, Mr. Cornish will immediately assume oversight for the deployment of Nasdaq’s SMARTS Market Surveillance technology, which will enable Gemini to monitor across all of its order books as well as Gemini Auctions™, which are used to determine the settlement price for the Bitcoin (USD) Futures Contracts that trade on Cboe Futures Exchange, LLC under the ticker symbol “XBT” (contract specifications | fact sheet)
Previously, Mr. Cornish held the positions of Chief Information Officer, Chief Information Security Officer, and Chief Technology Officer of the International Securities Exchange, and was named by Institutional Investor as a “Trading Technology Top 40” Financial Services executive.
