Published
Amy Mathews
Resource Management at Vibrant Inc.
As the millennial generation begins to enter the stage in their lives where they make larger purchases, invest, and buy property, they are finding that the traditional banking services their parent see more
- 01:00 am
HubStor, a leading archive-as-a-service solution for unstructured data on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, today announced integration and global partnership with Red Box Recorders, a leading provider of communication recording solutions used by the world’s top 6 banks and 85% of global interdealer brokers.
Customers of both vendors’ technology now have an out-of-the-box integration where Red Box technology records voice conversations over soft client phones, turrets, and mobile devices and HubStor automatically preserves the data in write-once-read-many (WORM) compliant storage with full chain-of-custody in the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.
As part of the Red Boxintegration, HubStor now includes a metadata template for search and data management of voice communications using relevant attributes such as call duration, start and end times, agent group, called number, caller ID, etc.
Using audio transcription and search technology, HubStor also performs identification and tagging of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) within recorded conversations. With HubStor’s query and dataset isolation capabilities, customers can pinpoint and manage sensitive datasets in an identity-aware manner for GDPR compliance.
“Our integration with HubStor provides our clients with additional options for compliance,” said Pete Ellis, CRO, Red Box Recorders. “HubStor’s customers can also benefit as the integration with Red Box technology represents an easy way of capturing communications data from more sources to the HubStor platform.”
Voice communication recording has risen in importance with the MiFID II regulatory requirements which came into effect in January 2018. Other regulations such as Dodd-Frank in the U.S. and Market Abuse Directive and Regulation (MAD/MAR) in Europe require investment firms to retain records of trade-related communication in a tamper-proof format.
“Capturing and archiving voice communications is a top challenge faced by many organizations in financial services,” said Vladimir Milutin, VP of Business Development, HubStor. “Enabling our customers to achieve WORM storage on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform in a more convenient, cost effective, and secure manner than on-premises approaches is part of HubStor’s unique advantage to clients.”
HubStor, an object storage platform that runs fully managed in any Microsoft Azure region around the world, can be used by clients with data residency compliance for long-term cloud storage of voice records along with other types of unstructured data such as books and records, email, video, backup files, log data, medical images, and genomics data.
- 04:00 am
Paysafe, a leading global payments provider, today announces that it has agreed to acquire iPayment Holdings, Inc. (“iPayment”), a U.S. based provider of payment and processing solutions for small and medium-sized businesses (SMB). The acquisition forms part of Paysafe’s previously stated investment strategy to expand its presence in North America in response to significant growth opportunities, particularly in the fast-growing SMB sector.
This latest U.S. based investment builds on Paysafe’s acquisition last August of SMB payments provider, Merchant Choice Payment Solutions (“MCPS”), as well as its high-profile sponsorship of North America’s IndyCar series, and will establish Paysafe as a top 5 non-bank payment processor in the U.S.
With more than 137,000 merchant customers as well as annual processing volumes of over $28 billion in 2017, iPayment is an established leader in the U.S. based payment processing industry. The company operates both direct and indirect sales channels and is a well-respected provider and partner for hundreds of agents, sub-ISOs and software developers specialising in the SMB sector. iPayment employs over 450 employees across its four U.S. offices located in Boston, Massachusetts; Westlake Village and Camarillo, California; and Minden, Nevada.
The integration of iPayment with Paysafe will bring merchants, partners, consumers and platforms more product choice via an integrated payments platform which includes point of sale (POS) solutions, order ahead purchases and payments, as well as online payment products such as Paysafe’s leading prepaid solution, paysafecard.
Joel Leonoff, Paysafe’s President and CEO, commented: “This targeted acquisition is part of our long-term investment strategy to grow our business in North America and builds on our other successful acquisitions over the past couple of years.”
Leonoff added: “iPayment is an excellent strategic fit with Paysafe in terms of its comprehensive product offering, customer-centric focus and overall strategic vision. By bringing our two organisations together, we will be able to further strengthen our wide-ranging payments processing suite and expose it to a broader audience of merchants and consumers. We are all looking forward to the multiple opportunities this combination brings to the market.”
“This agreement marks a very exciting day for our organisation,” noted OB Rawls IV, CEO and President, iPayment, Inc. He added: “Since joining iPayment two years ago, we have delivered strong EBITDA growth and expanded our footprint into new key verticals. This acquisition will drive significant value for our collective customers and partners.”
Todd Linden, CEO of Paysafe’s Payment Processing Division in North America, will lead the merged payment processing organisation at completion. Linden brings over 30 years of industry experience and was previously CEO of MCPS. Rawls, along with iPayment CFO, Robert Purcell, will both remain with the organisation at completion as key members of Paysafe’s payments leadership team.
The acquisition is expected to complete in Q2, 2018, pending final regulatory approvals. Until then, the two groups will continue to operate as independent organisations.
RBC Capital Markets, LLC is acting as lead financial adviser to Paysafe on the acquisition. Credit Suisse also provided financial advice and is leading the debt financing. Stikeman Elliott LLP and Paul Hastings LLP are serving as Paysafe’s legal counsel on the acquisition while Latham & Watkins LLP is acting as Paysafe’s legal counsel on the financing. For iPayment, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is acting as exclusive financial advisor and Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher LLP is serving as legal counsel.
- 03:00 am
Global Fintech Solutions (GFS), a fintech platform aimed at transferring leading global technologies into emerging markets, raised a new funding round from several funds under the management of Da Vinci Capital and from its the portfolio group, ITI Funds. Investment group Prytek was a co-investor in the investment round.
GFS acquires exclusive licenses for global tech products for further technology transfer into the markets with low penetration and high growth potential, including Russia. Current product portfolio includes 7 core technologies. Company plans to enlarge its product portfolio twofold in 2018, boost its revenue to $20m in 2019 and conduct an IPO in two-three years at the international exchange.
GFS offices are located in Luxembourg, Russia and Israel.
‘Russian financial technology market is driven mainly from technological banks and other corporate market participants, but the level of development of fintech startups is not high enough to properly deliver technological solutions to such banks. — says Oleg Jelezko, managing partner at Da Vinci Capital. — We believe into the global opportunities for GFS as the platform for financial technologies development, and in a strong team, which can take the leading position on Russian fintech market.”
“Fintech sector is a flagship at the digital world economies, rapid development of fintech technology can drive further economic growth, therefore GFS focuses on the corporate innovations. Cooperation with Da Vinci Capital gives us an understanding that we are on the right way and technology transfer is one of the perspective areas for investments and strategy development.” — highlights Andrey Yashunsky, chief executive officer at GFS.
- 09:00 am
Sberbank and SAP have announced the completion of a major HR digital transformation project that utilises the SAP Success Factors cloud solution. The system is currently used by 230,000 of the bank’s employees in Russia.
The aim of the project was to ensure a new level of quality of personnel management processes at the bank in accordance with the ambitious 2020 transformation strategy. Key objectives of the project included increasing the quality of employee recruitment and training, achieving transparent career planning and development, creating a new model of competencies, and developing corporate culture.
The cloud platform unites all Russia-based employees of the bank in a single digital space, which enables Sberbank to realise the concept of a single internal labour market. At any time, every employee can use any device to work on personal development using the assessment tools, career planning and online training. Managers can receive information about their teams, work with candidates for open positions, make employee development decisions, and view their colleagues’ assessment scores. In addition the system lets managers see a chart of positions that they can aspire to at the company. The platform can also be used by managers to track the performance of each employee, assess their skills and competencies and put together teams to resolve tasks, regardless of where employees are located. The bank’s management can use data from the system to make strategic decisions about planning competencies required at the bank, personnel development, and current and potential growth areas.
In addition, the system significantly reduces the time spent on personnel recruitment and on-boarding, as well as making this process inclusive for all divisions of the bank.
In the future it will be possible to use information collected by the system to create new digital solutions for working with personnel, including predictive tools.
“Sberbank’s main aim is to reach a new level of competitiveness that will enable us to compete with global tech companies whilst maintaining our status as the number one bank for individuals and businesses. We plan to achieve this aim by scaling up our business and increasing profits and efficiency whilst increasing flexibility, speed and client centricity by introducing new technology and cultivating a new sort of employee,” commented Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of Sberbank Yulia Chupina.
“Sberbank’s switchover to SAP Success Factors is a unique project of nationwide significance. The speed at which it was carried out and also the fact that it has united every single employee of Russia’s largest bank in a single cloud space is truly impressive. Sberbank has demonstrated that if you have a strategy, a will, and a well-coordinated team it is possible to make transformations, regardless of the size and scale of your company. It’s significant that the project has been completed in a period when the Digital Economy programme is being actively carried out, as it means that Sberbank can serve as a digital benchmark for the state and business in Russia,” commented CEO of SAP CIS Nataliya Parmenova.
- 09:00 am
Stash, the financial services platform that's revolutionizing saving and investing, today announced its partnership with Green Dot Corporation and its subsidiary bank, Green Dot Bank, Member FDIC, to launch mobile-first banking services to help millions of Americans reach their dreams of financial security and prosperity.
Green Dot services will include bank accounts with debit cards, no overdraft fees, and a large network of free ATMs nationwide. Additionally, Stash will provide personal guidance across every aspect of a client's finances - from spending to saving, to retirement and investing. Stash powered technology will provide clients with actionable advice to help customers get the most out of their money.
"There are more than 100 million Americans who need a banking product just like the one we are building with Green Dot. Stash is committed to being a true partner and source of support for our clients, and for those who have systematically been left behind," said Brandon Krieg, CEO and cofounder, Stash. "Layering Green Dot's robust Banking as a Service platform with Stash's full suite of offerings will provide innovative, affordable tools to teach healthy financial habits, relieve financial stress, and help our clients save and invest more money."
Stash has 2 million customers and 5 million educational subscribers, with approximately 40,000 new clients joining weekly.
"Green Dot is proud to partner with a financial technology innovator like Stash, a company that has democratized investing for millions of Americans, to bring a customized, fully-featured and technology-forward bank account product to market. The partnership is an example of the versatility of Green Dot's Banking as a Service platform, which will enable Stash to turn their financial services ideas into real solutions to serve their customers," said Brett Narlinger, Chief Revenue Officer, Green Dot.
Since its launch in October 2015, Stash clients can invest and save in ETFs and in companies they are passionate about as a part of a balanced long-term investing strategy. With the help of Stash Coach, clients receive dynamic and personalized recommendations that will help guide them to create balanced, diversified portfolios for long-term investing goals.
In order to serve more of its client's financial needs, the "Stash Coach" will be a fundamental component of the Stash offering and is intended to provide actionable guidance across Clients' financial lives.
For simple, monthly subscriptions clients can invest into one or more of Stash's financial products including, Personal, Retirement and Custodial accounts. As part of their subscription, all Stash clients get unlimited trading with no commissions, personalized education and resources, as well as access to automatic saving and investing tools, Smart-Save and Auto-Stash.
- 05:00 am
Symantec Corp., one of the world's leading cyber security companies, and NTT Security, the specialized security company of NTT Group, have announced their intention to enter into a strategic partnership to bolster web security services offerings to customers across the cloud, mobile and on-premises.
By planning to bring together Symantec's Cloud-Delivered Web Security Services and CASB (Cloud Access Security Broker) technologies, key elements of the Symantec Integrated Cyber Defense Platform, with NTT Security's threat detection and advanced analytics capabilities, the companies intend to enhance security services and provide customers flexibility and efficiency in their digital transformation journey.
Further collaboration could see both parties sharing threat telemetry information to provide a more sophisticated security service suite.
The new services will plan to provide a comprehensive set of in-depth application controls designed to manage the increasing use of social and business web applications and enhance compliance and cybersecurity for customers by consistently enforcing acceptable use policies.
Greg Clark, Symantec CEO, said: "Security is an integral part of digital transformation and our planned partnership with NTT Security, a leader in the space, will help provide protection for customers throughout their journey. By combining our Integrated Cyber Defense Platform with NTT Security's leading solutions, we are aiming to ensure that businesses can respond to evolving threats and secure their data wherever it lives."
Jun Sawada, NTT Security CEO commented: "Our strategic partnership with Symantec will greatly enhance the level of advanced web security services both parties can deliver, and I expect this partnership to expand to other areas such as endpoint and the entire cloud-based security area. NTT Security offers through our operating companies Dimension Data, NTT Communications and NTT DATA, a wide portfolio of Cybersecurity Consulting, System Integration and Support Services, depending on the maturity level and specific requirements from our clients."
- 02:00 am
The Business Intelligence Group today announced that CSPi's ARIA Software Defined Security (SDS) platform has won the 2018 Fortress Cyber Security Awards for the Innovative Security Product category. The inaugural program sought to identify and reward the world's leading companies and products that are working to keep our data and electronic assets safe among a growing threat from hackers.
CSPi's ARIA Software Defined Security (SDS) platform takes a radically different approach to enterprise-wide data security as it places the focus on data impenetrability vs data breach prevention. This shift in mindset, along with ARIA's fully automated capabilities, enables organizations to address Secure DevOps challenges, including application security, uniform application of security policies and implementing advanced security features without impacting application performance.
- Secure DevOps: For organizations leveraging a DevOps model ARIA does not interfere with rapid application development and provides a simple means to automatically apply comprehensive security policies at both the application and the network layer.
- Application Security: With ARIA developers can easily secure and encrypt their applications with simple common-use connectors, as well as no changes to their processes. With a few simple steps ARIA's agent can be pulled in and connected to not only secure the application but also the data it produces. This requires zero knowledge of security on the part of the developer to make it all work.
- Security Policies: The ARIA Orchestrator discovers any new agent and automatically applies the appropriate policies without human intervention, including what the application should be allowed to talk to, ensure the image has been scanned/verified, and what level of encryption is applied.
- Advanced Security Features: Oftentimes standard business applications consume the majority of server core capacity. Running advanced security features, like encryption, on top of this could dramatically impact the performance. Organizations can use a Myricom Secure Intelligent Adapter (SIA) NIC running the ARIA software offloading the host of the execution of these security features in order to preserve, or improve, performance. In doing so - it eliminates the need for a server upgrade, a 10x cost savings.
"ARIA solves the age old security problem of, 'How do I protect my enterprise-wide data when neither threat detection nor prevention is reliable?' The key lies in making breaches irrelevant by fully protecting and/or encrypting the data no matter where it is stored, accessed or used," said Gary Southwell, GM, Security Products, CSPi. "Our ARIA platform automatically orchestrates the application of the appropriate security policies across the organization no matter where the data or applications are hosted, whether on premise or in the public cloud. Working seamlessly with ARIA, our Myricom SIA not only encrypts the data but also stores and encrypts license keys, offloading the server cores and improving application performance."
"We are so proud to name CSPi's ARIA SDS platform as a winner in our inaugural Fortress Cyber Security Awards program," said Maria Jimenez, Chief Nominatons Officer, Business Intelligence Group. "It was clear to our expert judges that the entire group of 35 innovators and innovations are the tip of the peak helping to prepare, defend and respond to the growing threat of cyber attacks. Congratulations to all!"
- 08:00 am
3W Infra, a fast growing Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) hosting provider from Amsterdam with global operations and more than 4,600 dedicated servers under management, has added the Asteroid Internet Exchange Point (IXP) to its ecosystem of network infrastructure providers. Under the signed cooperation agreement, 3W Infra will interconnect its high-volume (160 Gbps) global network with Asteroid’s IXP in Amsterdam. This will significantly expand 3W Infra’s networking capabilities and interconnectivity options in the Amsterdam metropolitan area while reducing networking cost for their clients.
Asteroid operates its network neutral Internet Exchange Point from Amsterdam Science Park – an area of 70 hectares in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where research institutes and related companies have their presence as well as data centers such as Interxion, Digital Realty, Equinix, and NIKHEF. Asteroid has its IXP solution in the NIKHEF data center – one of the largest Internet hubs in Europe that is part of a research institute, the Dutch National Institute for Subatomic Physics.
“Asteroid delivers interconnection services, but does it quite differently to many of the existing IXP players in the market,” said Remco van Mook, CEO of Asteroid. “We don’t deliver metro-wide connectivity, transport or cloud services, and we don’t compete with our customers. In fact, we have gone back to the origins of peering, focusing on delivering highly efficient, cost-effective, and low-latency local interconnection. We’re excited about 3W Infra connecting to our highly automated IXP, as their customer base includes some of the largest, latency-sensitive content providers including cloud service providers and customers within the gaming segment.”
Interconnectivity Data Centers Amsterdam
Asteroid’s highly automated and scalable IXP in Amsterdam offers 3W Infra’s customers efficient and cost-effective interconnection in the Amsterdam metropolitan area. Through the Asteroid IXP platform - built on the latest technologies, using Asteroid’s responsive, customer-driven approach - networks can:
• Add ports at the click of a button through Asteroid’s easy-to-use web portal
• Use Asteroid’s management, peering and security features
• Suggest and support new IXPs wherever they need interconnection
• Manage their global peering with one contract and one management solution
- Peer with some of the largest carriers, ISPs, and CDNs in the world
Asteroid also works with partners to deliver IXPs in other parts of the world. The latest addition is in McAllen Texas, where Asteroid has delivered an IXP in partnership with MDC Data Centers. The MEX-IX connects the world’s largest concentration of Mexican networks.
Additionally, Asteroid deploys its highly automated IXP platform in other parts of the world, based on customer demand. Next Asteroid IXP will be deployed in Mombasa, Kenya, later this year. Mombasa is the landing station for all undersea fiber cables to Kenya and an international hub for Internet traffic in the region.
“We’re impressed with the vastly innovative platform deployed by Asteroid,” said Murat Bayhan, CEO of IaaS hosting provider 3W Infra. “Their extremely efficient IXP platform design will provide a high level of automation and cost-efficiency to our customers when it comes to their networking efficiency and network interconnectivity requirements in the Amsterdam metropolitan area. We also like their international ambitions, as 3W Infra is delivering its IaaS services on a global scale as well. Our enterprise customers as well as CSP clients will definitely appreciate this networking efficiency we’re now delivering on top of our compliant and SLA-backed IaaS hosting services in Amsterdam.”
- 03:00 am
Sigma Designs, a leading provider of intelligent system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for connected smart home IoT, is proud to announce a cumulative lifetime 100M Z-Wave modules have shipped into the smart home market. With hundreds of customers shipping over 2,400 interoperable Z-Wave devices, Sigma Designs is pleased to highlight that the recipient of the 100 millionth module was the smart home service provider and long-time customer of Sigma Designs, Vivint Smart Home.
Services such as professionally monitored security are currently driving the smart home market. With Z-Wave technology achieving over 90% penetration in this segment, it is no surprise that Vivint, a leading smart home service provider, was the recipient of the 100 millionth Z-Wave module. Vivint was the first service provider to adopt Z-Wave as the home control technology in its panels, deploying certified Z-Wave devices as part of a Vivint smart home system to give customers unprecedented peace of mind and control over their entire home.
"We are grateful to every one of our customers, some of the biggest service providers and manufacturers in the smart home and security world, who have supported Z-Wave over the years and driven adoption of the standard in the market to get us to this milestone of 100M Z-Wave modules shipped," said Raoul Wijgergangs, VP of Z-Wave Business Unit, Sigma Designs, Inc. "We're delighted to name Vivint as the customer to order the 100 millionth unit. As the longest running service provider customer and an innovator in the smart home and security market, Vivint has designed home security and automation packages that increase safety and convenience for today's consumer."
"Z-Wave allows us to give customers an integrated smart home system so they can control their home through a panel, a single mobile app or by using their voice," said Jim Nye, chief product operations officer at Vivint Smart Home. "We are honored to be the recipient of the 100 millionth Z-Wave module and thrilled to see the ecosystem advance to such a large share of the market."
