Published
- 06:00 am
Third-generation blockchain network Aion (www.aion.network) announced the launch of the first public blockchain interoperability platform. The Aion network will allow for independently operated blockchains to connect, enabling the instant, global transfer and recording of data and value, streamlining communications, and bridging disparate blockchains. Use cases for the Aion protocol include cross-organizational functions like supply chain operations, communication between health providers, and data-sharing between government entities.
“We envision a future where any blockchain can connect and share data, creating a powerful network to revolutionize how industries share information,” said Matthew Spoke, Founder and CEO of Aion. “We’re proud to be the first interoperability platform in the blockchain industry, and look forward to witnessing use cases across the public and private sector.”
Aion will be customizable, allowing enterprises to partition a blockchain to control access for security or privacy reasons. The range of blockchain-related use cases in a single, large enterprise can also be broad enough to require multiple blockchains, each with semantic, operational, or government properties, while still maintaining safe and private communication between them.
Aion’s founding team first came together to create Deloitte’s blockchain practice in 2014. Recognizing that blockchains were like computers before email, Aion set out to develop an interoperable network to connect public and private blockchains. Since raising $22 million USD through a token sale in 2017, developers have created Aion’s multi-tier blockchain network designed to support a future where blockchains solve unique problems. The Aion testnet was released in early 2018, generating feedback used to develop the current public network.
Aion will host its first developer conference, AIONEX, on May 2, 2018 in Toronto. AIONEX takes place just prior to the Community Ethereum Development Conference happening May 3-5, and will feature technical discussions on the impact of a common interoperable protocol by blockchain thought leaders and engineers.
Aion’s advisory board includes Anthony Di Iorio, Co-Founder of Ethereum, John Lee, Vice President of Enterprise Delivery at the Toronto Stock Exchange, and Salim Ismail, the former Vice President of Yahoo and the founding executive director of Singularity University.
- 05:00 am
Avoka was proud to join its customer HSBC Commercial Banking Group at Celent’s Innovation & Insight Day on April 24 as HSBC accepted its award for Model Bank for Commercial Account Onboarding. The win is based upon the digital transformation achieved by HSBC partnering with Avoka, the global leader in customer acquisition software for banking. Avoka and HSBC worked together to streamline the digital onboarding process, bringing a frictionless, omnichannel experience to nearly 400,000 commercial customers across 44 markets and their respective languages and regulatory requirements, rolling out the solution to the initial 26 countries in just nine months.
For more detail read the complete Celent case study, HSBC: CoreDocs Digital Transformation of Global Business Onboarding.
“We are very honoured that Celent recognised the onboarding system we delivered for our commercial banking division, especially as there were so many other strong contenders,” said Mr. Sateen Bailur, Head of Commercial Banking Client Management Technology at HSBC. “The partnership with Avoka allowed us to deliver a globally consistent customer experience, while meeting the local needs of each market, on a highly ambitious project schedule.”
HSBC’s mission was to grow its international commercial client network, a challenging project requiring a robust and scalable onboarding process to match it. The bank tapped Avoka’s unmatched expertise in perfecting the customer journey to build the solution, using Avoka Transact to revamp customer onboarding. The new system eliminates repetitive documentation and manual processes, and fulfills local market requirements for each of the i 44 distinct local markets.
By introducing the new automated process built by Avoka, the bank eliminated weeks of manual paper processing and application rework, with customers in the initial 26 country rollout scoring the process as extremely positive.
“HSBC established itself as an innovation leader with this ambitious commercial onboarding project,” said Patricia Hines of Celent. “We are impressed with how the bank worked with Avoka to deliver this solution to 26 countries in a nine-month timespan,” Hines added.
“Throughout our time working with our bank partners, we’ve continued to see significant growth in digital transformation in the commercial banking sector - the most profitable, yet most complex of all product lines, with its inherent compliance requirements. Commercial banking offers an unmatched growth opportunity for digital leadership and improvement of the customer experience. Institutions like HSBC are leading the way, and we congratulate them on a well-deserved win!” said Derek Corcoran, Chief Experience Officer, Avoka.
Currently in its 11th year, Celent Model Bank is awarded for technology best practices in different areas critical to success in banking.
- 09:00 am
The administrators of the DDoS marketplace webstresser.org were arrested on 24 April 2018 as a result of Operation Power Off, a complex investigation led by the Dutch Police and the UK’s National Crime Agency with the support of Europol and a dozen law enforcement agencies from around the world. The administrators were located in the United Kingdom, Croatia, Canada and Serbia. Further measures were taken against the top users of this marketplace in the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Croatia, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Hong Kong. The illegal service was shut down and its infrastructure seized in the Netherlands, the US and Germany.
Webstresser.org was considered the world’s biggest marketplace to hire Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) services, with over 136 000 registered users and 4 million attacks measured by April 2018. The orchestrated attacks targeted critical online services offered by banks, government institutions and police forces, as well as victims in the gaming industry.
Devastation for hire
In a DDoS attack enabled by such a service, the attacker remotely controls connected devices to direct a large amount of traffic at a website or an online platform. Whether this traffic eats up the website’s bandwidth, overwhelms the server, or consumes other essential resources, the end result of an unmitigated DDoS attack is the same: the victim website is either slowed down past the point of usability, or it’s knocked completely offline, depriving users from essential online services.
It used to be that in order to launch a DDoS attack, one had to be pretty well versed in internet technology. That is no longer the case. With webstresser.org, any registered user could pay a nominal fee using online payment systems or cryptocurrencies to rent out the use of stressers and booters. Fees on offer were as low as EUR 15.00 a month, thus allowing individuals with little to no technical knowledge to launch crippling DDoS attacks.
International law enforcement cyber sweep
International police cooperation was central to the success of this investigation initiated by the Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit and the UK National Crime Agency, as the administrators, users, critical infrastructure and victims were scattered across the world.
Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) and the Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (J-CAT) supported the investigation from the onset by facilitating the exchange of information between all partners. A command and coordination post was set up at Europol’s headquarters in The Hague on the action day.
"We have a trend where the sophistication of certain professional hackers to provide resources is allowing individuals – and not just experienced ones – to conduct DDoS attacks and other kind of malicious activities online", said Steven Wilson, Head of Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3). "It’s a growing problem, and one we take very seriously. Criminals are very good at collaborating, victimising millions of users in a moment form anywhere in the world. We need to collaborate as good as them with our international partners to turn the table on these criminals and shut down their malicious cyberattacks."
"Stresser websites make powerful weapons in the hands of cybercriminals" said Jaap van Oss, Dutch Chairman of the Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (J-CAT). "International law enforcement will not tolerate these illegal services and will continue to pursue its admins and users. This joint operation is yet another successful example of the ongoing international effort against these destructive cyberattacks."
DDoS-ing is a crime
DDoS attacks are illegal. Many IT enthusiasts get involved in seemingly low-level fringe cybercrime activities, unaware of the consequences that such crimes carry. The penalties can be severe: if you conduct a DDoS attack, or make, supply or obtain stresser or booter services, you could receive a prison sentence, a fine or both.
The individuals that become involved in cybercrime often have a skill set that could be put to a positive use. Skills in coding, gaming, computer programming, cyber security or anything IT-related are in high demand and there are many careers and opportunities available to anyone with an interest in these areas
Gregory Webb, CEO, Bromium:
“The platform criminality model is productizing malware and making cybercrime as easy as shopping online. Not only is it easy to access cybercriminal tools, services and expertise: it means enterprises and governments alike are going to see more sophisticated, costly and disruptive attacks as The Web of Profit continues to gain momentum. We can’t solve this problem using old thinking or outmoded technology. By focusing on new methods of cybersecurity that protect rather than detect, we believe we can make cybercrime a lot harder.”
DDoS statistics from Bromium’s Into the Web of Profit:
- Crimeware-as-a-service earns cybercriminals $1.6bn per year
- DDoS attack hire generates $13m of revenue per year
- The average DDos attack costs around $200 per day, with some rising to as much as $1,000 per day
- There are an average of 6.5m DDoS attacks per year
Alex Malyshev
CEO at SDK.finance
Since 2015, we’ve accumulated a wealth of experience and communications with banks from different European countries such as the Netherlands, Poland, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, France, Ireland, B see more
- 05:00 am
Leading global payments provider Paysafe has been recognised for its Employer Brand and Investment in Human Capital in Bulgaria’s Company of the Year awards.
The official ceremony took place on April 19 in Sofia, with guests including government officials and business representatives. The event is supported by the Deputy Prime Minister of Economics and Demographic Policy, in collaboration with the Minister of Economy, the Minister of Education and the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy for the Republic of Bulgaria. The organisers of the annual event are Bulgaria’s Business Review magazine, Business Lady magazine and the Business Lady Club.
The annual Company of the Year awards aims to recognise successful business and management models and celebrate best practice. Paysafe was recognised for its investments in human capital in Bulgaria and for its ongoing efforts in creating a great place to work with a friendly and modern working environment for employees.
Paysafe moved into a new facility in Sofia at the end of 2015 and has gradually expanded its office space to occupy seven floors, accommodating more than 900 employees in Capital Fort, one of the most modern office buildings in Sofia – itself an award winner in 2017.
Over the last few years the company has seen strong growth in its employee base in Bulgaria. Today, Paysafe’s Sofia hub is the centre for company’s global operations, including technology, infrastructure, risk, fraud and customer services.
Miroslav Bojilov, Paysafe’s General Manager in Bulgaria, commented on the award win: “At Paysafe we are proud to offer a motivational working environment and the opportunity for our team in Bulgaria to work on and support leading, innovative payment products that are used around the world. We have much to celebrate, and winning this award validates our efforts as we go on to achieve more in the future.”
Petya Nikolova, Paysafe’s Head of HR in Bulgaria, added: “At Paysafe we are committed to fostering an entrepreneurial and open culture which is centred around breaking new boundaries in the work we do every day. Our people are our greatest asset and we will continue to cultivate an environment where they can develop and grow.”
This latest award follows a series of accolades for Paysafe as an employer of choice – both in Bulgaria and globally. The company was recently named by Capital 100 as the largest software company in Bulgaria. On a global level, the company was recently rated one of Canada's top two employers at the Glassdoor Employees' Choice awards, and came first in Austria’s ‘Great Place to Work’ awards’ ‘Modern Workplaces’ category.
- 04:00 am
Celebrating best-in-class institutions shaping the private banking industry in North Asia
Friday 1st June 2018, Hong Kong
Private Banker International Greater China Awards Luncheon is in its 10th year for 2018 and is being hosted by the renowned publication ‘Private Banker International’ (PBI). PBI is an editorially independent briefing service aimed at banks, financial services companies, related intermediaries and technology vendors in the private banking and wealth management sector.
PBI’s Greater China Awards Luncheon will bring together the leading private banks and wealth management firms in Asia Pacific to celebrate the outstanding contributions made by institutions in shaping the industry. Additionally, our prestigious event will provide an excellent platform to network and exchange ideas with your peers.
13 awards across 3 categories will be given for wide-ranging achievements and will look to highlight leaders in the industry and their efforts to progress the private banking sector. The award categories are as follows:
Individual Awards
Best Private Bank in China
Best Private Bank in China (Foreign)
Best Private Bank in Taiwan
Best Private Bank in Taiwan (Foreign)
Best Private Bank in Hong Kong
Best Private Bank in Hong Kong (Foreign)
Service Proposition Awards
Best Family Office Proposition in Greater China
Best Offshore Renminbi Offering in Greater China
Best Ultra-High-Net-Worth-Individual Offering in Greater China
Most Effective Wealth Management Platform in Greater China
Individual Awards
Outstanding Private Bank (Greater China – North Asia)
Outstanding Private Banker (Greater China – North Asia)
Rising Star
To find out more about the PBI Greater China Awards Luncheon, visit our website here: http://www.arena-international.com/pbigreaterchina or email us at events@arena-international.com
- 06:00 am
Gemini Trust Company, LLC (Gemini) and Nasdaq Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ) announced today that Gemini will be leveraging Nasdaq's SMARTS Market Surveillance technology to monitor its marketplace. The technology, which is considered the most widely deployed surveillance system in the world, will enable Gemini to monitor across all of its trading pairs, including: BTC/USD, ETH/USD and BTC/ETH. Further, SMARTS will also surveil activity across the Gemini auction process that is used to determine the settlement price for the Bitcoin XBT futures contracts that trade on Cboe's CFE Exchange.
"Since launch, Gemini has aggressively pursued comprehensive compliance and surveillance programs, which we believe betters our exchange and the cryptocurrency industry as a whole," said Tyler Winklevoss, CEO, Gemini. "Our deployment of Nasdaq's SMARTS Market Surveillance will help ensure that Gemini is a rules-based marketplace for all market participants."
"Gemini has been a leading voice in advocating for stronger transparency and thoughtful regulation of the cryptocurrency markets - views we deeply share and have put into practice as a market operator and technology partner," said Valerie Bannert-Thurner, Senior Vice President and Head of Risk & Surveillance Solutions, Nasdaq. "Being regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS), Gemini is held to the utmost standards in terms of capital reserve requirements. This is a major milestone in the application of SMARTS- and an important indicator of our commitment to expand the use of our market technology into non-traditional marketplaces, as well as new frontiers beyond the capital markets."
As the industry benchmark for real-time and T+1 cross-market surveillance platforms, Nasdaq's SMARTS surveillance technology automates the detection, investigation and analysis of potentially abusive or disorderly trading, to help improve the overall efficiency of the surveillance organization and reduce cost, even as market complexity and new regulations increase. These solutions are used to power monitoring for more than 45 marketplaces, 17 regulators and 140+ market participants, including several buy-side institutions, across 65 countries.
- 02:00 am
Metapraxis, the leader in financial analytics technology, today announces its partnership with global professional services firm Genpact. Designed to build on each firm’s complementary capabilities, the partnership will enable both companies to offer Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) teams with - tailored analytics solutions that provide predictive trends, enterprise planning and the capability to automate existing manual reporting processes.
Metapraxis is a specialist in visualisation, planning and analysis technology which helps FTSE 100 and other blue-chip companies identify, model and track their core drivers of business value through its analytics platform, allowing companies to improve overall business performance. The combination of Metapraxis technology with Genpact’s industry expertise will enable both firms to gain valuable knowledge and deliver better, data driven insights for their customers.
This partnership marks an important step for Metapraxis as they look to grow its presence in new industries, such as insurance, by offering specialist Financial Planning & Analysis products that meet industry specific requirements.
Simon Bittlestone, CEO at Metapraxis comments:
“Our financial analytics technology continues to provide Financial Planning & Analysis teams with intelligent insights into their business performance trends to date, what the performance is likely to be in the future, and what actions should be taken to improve business performance. We are very pleased to be partnering with Genpact to extend our technology further and to support more customers.”
John Souter, Partner at Genpact, comments:
“Genpact is focused on driving digital transformation for our clients and solving their problems through data and analytics, especially for FP&A operations. By combining our complementary experiences and approaches, Genpact and Metapraxis will be able to support clients through one all-encompassing solution which creates operational efficiencies and provides better, more tangible insights. We are delighted to be working with the team at Metapraxis and look forward to supporting our clients with our combined data analytics products.”
- 08:00 am
Alipay, the world’s largest online and mobile payment platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group, and The Dubai Mall, the world’s largest and most-visited retail and entertainment destination, located in the heart of the prestigious Downtown Dubai, today jointly announced that Chinese mainland visitors can now use Alipay to pay for a wide range of shopping, dining and must-see leisure attractions.
With the remarkable growth and importance of Chinese tourism to Dubai, The Dubai Mall is continuing to look at ways to accommodate their needs, which includes multilingual Guest Services staff and Chinese language Mall Guides.
Chinese visitors can now look for stores across The Dubai Mall through Alipay’s in-app Discover platform, and pay for their orders in RMB via Alipay at the cashiers.
Key destinations include The Souk, an elegantly designed precinct featuring jewellery shops, accessory outlets, traditional Arab clothing and handicraft stores; or The Village, which offers a rich collection of denim brands and brings an outdoor community feel with tree-lined walkways, cafés and restaurants; or the newly expanded Fashion Avenue, which provides a significant boost to Dubai’s premium shopping options, with over 150 luxury shopping and dining experiences including flagships and new concepts.
In addition, Chinese visitors can use Alipay at all The Dubai Mall’s popular entertainment attractions including Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo, the newly opened VR Park, Dubai Ice Rink and At the Top, Burj Khalifa, the world’s highest observation deck with an outdoor terrace.
With a total internal floor area of 5.9 million sq ft, The Dubai Mall has 3.77 million sq ft of gross leasable space and over 1,300 retail outlets including two anchor department stores – Galeries Lafayette and Bloomingdale’s – and over 200 global food and beverage outlets. The Dubai Mall offers an unparalleled retail mix combined with world-class dining, entertainment and leisure attractions.
The Dubai Mall, the world’s largest shopping and entertainment destination, is part of Downtown Dubai, Emaar Properties’ flagship mega-development.
Alipay currently has over 520 million active users in China. According to a report from Alipay and Nielsen, ease of payments is also a leading factor when it comes to key purchase decisions for Chinese tourists. 91% of Chinese tourists claimed they would show greater willingness to spend and shop if overseas merchants accepted Chinese mobile payments.
Statistics by The Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing in Dubai show that over 764,000 Chinese tourists visited Dubai in the fiscal year of 2017, with a year-on-year growth of 41%, ranking China as the 5th largest source market of Dubai. Over 68,000 Chinese tourists visited Dubai this January*.
- 02:00 am
SSP, a global provider of technology systems and solutions across the entire insurance industry,has integrated iPipeline's award-winning SolutionBuilder® quote and apply system with its next generation financial services software, SSP Adviser. SSP is offering this industry innovation to its customer base to accelerate and simplify quoting, applying, analysis, illustrations and product comparison reporting all at the point of sale.
With a simplified and responsive user interface, SolutionBuilder enables advisers to easily compare both single and multi-benefit products, such as term assurance, life and critical illness all on one screen. This ensures advisers can quickly identify the right protection for their client's needs.
Integrating this functionality with the modern web-based SSP Adviser client and policy management solution enables SSP's customers to gain increased efficiencies at point of sale. The integration saves time by pre-populating client data to streamline the quote request, as well as facilitating the analysis in SolutionBuilder and automatically bringing back key facts illustrations (KFIs), comparison reports and illustrations to support the recommendation. It also sets up the policy proposal and details of the expected commissions due, allowing advisers to achieve greater efficiency across the whole process.
Whilst the analysis is done in SolutionBuilder with quotes available for up to 90 days, the quote, product and comparison details are brought back into SSP Adviser, allowing the documents to be retrieved with ease of access.
Adrian Coupland, Customer and Marketing Managing Director at SSP said:"I am really excited by the additional capabilities SSP can offer its existing and new customers through this partnership with iPipeline. Our customers are the heart of SSP, and this is the first of a number of exciting initiatives we have planned to ensure they get the most out of their SSP Adviser solution."
Paul Yates, Product Strategy Director at iPipeline said: "We are delighted to have integrated SolutionBuilder with SSP Adviser in a partnership that allows advisers to service simple and complex protection needs effectively across single and multi-benefit solutions. We believe bringing new and innovative technology enhancements to advisers' processes are a key component to help grow their protection business. SolutionBuilder is an example of this, as evidenced by a 28% increase in protection business via iPipeline during 2017."
