Fidor, an innovative provider of digital banking services, today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with IFC (International Finance Corporation), a member of the World Bank Group, to identify opportunities to expand digital banking services in Africa and Latin America to boost financial inclusion. 

Some 2 billion working-age adults globally do not use formal financial services. Extending access to finance to them is the first building block to build a better life. Financial access facilitates day-to-day living, and helps families and businesses plan for everything from long-term goals to unexpected emergencies. As account holders, people are more likely to use other financial services, such as credit and insurance, start and expand businesses, invest in education or health, manage risk, and weather financial shocks, all of which can improve the overall quality of their lives. 

As part of the agreement, both IFC and Fidor will attempt to grow financial inclusion by identifying financial institutions and partners to introduce or expand digital bank joint ventures. Fidor will provide its own proprietary technology platform – the Fidor Operating System (fOS) – for API banking to deliver financial services in a cost-efficient manner, in addition to share its knowledge in running a digital bank from the ground up. 

Fidor’s operates by co-innovating with organisations that wish to launch digital banks by sharing both its banking expertise and cutting-edge technology. It does this by offering white labeled bank solutions covering technology, compliance, risk management, go to market strategy and customer service. Digital technologies are essential to enable IFC and the World Bank Group meet its goal of Universal Finance Access – enabling 1 billion more people to have access to a transaction account by 2020.

With this MOU, Fidor will work with IFC to introduce similar innovations to both Africa and Latin America to help bridge the financial inclusion gap. This MOU leverages Fidor and IFC’s expertise, existing portfolio of investments, franchise, industry relationships, co-investors, and other relevant stakeholder relationships in these emerging markets.

Matthias Kröner, Founder & CEO of Fidor, commented: “Fidor’s business model is deeply rooted in providing fair banking in the most efficient fashion possible which aligns with financial inclusion agendas. Having access to financial services can improve people’s everyday lives in emerging markets. However, the benefits of financial inclusion are not only limited to individuals, and can help emerging countries’ economic and social development, as well as playing a significant role in empowering people and societies.

Duo Security, the leading provider of zero-trust security to more than 10,000 organizations worldwide and creator of Duo Beyond, the first commercial implementation of Google's BeyondCorp security initiative, today launches the Duo Technology Partner Program. This technical partnership ecosystem includes many of the world's leading technology companies, including Akamai, Workday, Microsoft, Intel and VMware. The program enables Duo and its partners' mutual customers to more easily transition to a modern, zero-trust security architecture. 

Central to the Technology Partner Program is Duo Beyond, a new platform to address the sea change in how companies secure data in an increasingly mobile and cloud-based world. Duo Beyond is built on the principles of zero-trust and Google's BeyondCorp security framework where every application is logically isolated and access is granted only after full verification of the user and the device. Duo Beyond helps organizations enable safe, seamless access from any location without the frustration of traditional virtual private network (VPN) or network access control (NAC) experiences.

"Our customers consistently rely on us to provide best-in-class interoperability with the rest of their IT investments," explained Ash Devata, Vice President of Product for Duo Security. "We have worked with hundreds of top vendors to support our customers' various security initiatives in the last few years alone, so this formalized Technology Partner Program will help us further scale our ability to meet customers' needs and ensure partnering with Duo is radically easy."

Duo's Technology Partner Program comprises two-tiers designed to serve various levels of partner involvement and integration needs - no matter the organization size or industry:

• Duo Select: Customized to assist large, industry leaders such as VMware, Microsoft, Workday, Intel, and CyberArk help their customers adopt a modern, zero-trust approach to security. The most recent addition to the Duo Select lineup is Akamai, who today with Duo introduced a zero-trust ecosystem for remote workers. With Duo and Akamai, even the largest enterprises can enable secure remote access for external users - contractors, business partners, remote full-time workers - in minutes instead of days or weeks. 
   
• Duo Ready: Tailored to help hundreds of the most innovative enterprise technology leaders, such as ForgeRock, Cylance, Yubico, Avecto, and many more implement best-in-class security solutions with Duo. Duo Ready partners gain access to Duo's existing network of 10,000-plus customers and 2,000-plus resellers, and developers are given full Duo developer accounts to build, test, and certify integrations created with the Duo platform while collaborating with hundreds of other participating developers. Partners often work with Duo to address various use cases such as identity and access management; endpoint security; and security orchestration, automation, and response workflows.

"Microsoft is working with strategic partners around the world to offer the best protection for customer data," said Alex Simons, Director, Program Management, Microsoft Identity Division at Microsoft Corp. "Duo's easy to implement solution is a great option for our joint customers looking to secure their strategic cloud assets."

"Protecting against today's growing attack surface requires leading security companies to work together to protect our customers' modern infrastructure," said Adam Bosnian, Executive Vice President, Global Business Development, CyberArk. "The integration between the market leading CyberArk Privileged Account Security Solution and Duo empowers joint customers to prioritize privileged access security to better manage risk and rapidly respond to emerging threats."

Ashish Jain, Vice President of Product Strategy, End-User Computing at VMware explains, "The integration of Duo Beyond with VMware Workspace ONE provides customers with a simplified, efficient way to view and manage all devices from a central admin console, enabling secure access to all sensitive company information and applications."

Mutual customers benefit from Duo's collaboration with its technology partners around the world, allowing them to implement solutions that ensure trusted access for all their applications. It also enables partner vendors to solve new customer use cases and establish additional routes to market on the Duo security platform.

"The Ohio State University has partnered with both Duo and Workday since 2015," said Helen Patton, Chief Information Security Officer, The Ohio State University. "Their partnership will help our community deliver on the university's mission securely and effectively. We look forward to the partnership and the benefits that it will bring to our university."

Ever since artificial intelligence has been around, companies seek for new ways to “exploit” it. The introduction of computer programs which use auditory and textual methods to conduct conversations began in the 1950s.

That’s when the original idea about chatbots was born. Designed to follow patterns and take action when a precise keyword or phrase is written, chatbots are probably the most used marketing tool of modern times.

The first Chatbots like ELIZA (1966) and Parry (1972) were only able to simulate typed conversations, unlike those of today who can have tons of uses such as playing games, giving customer support, scheduling meetings, being personal assistants, searching and tracking for flights, and even, as Nordstrom demonstrated with staggering success, suggesting products, finding discounts and deals, etc.

Many big companies have decided to incorporate chatbots in their businesses, with Nordstrom, Google, eBay, Microsoft, and IBM being among the most famous ones.

Artificial intelligence is used by 38% of enterprises, and that number is going to grow to 68% by the end of this year. When asked whether they would like to install chatbots, 80% of businesses answered positively and that they intend to make that happen by 2020.

To get a better picture of just how big chatbots really are, please take a look at the infographic that follows.

https://www.16best.net/blog/chatbots-gone-wild/

Business information provider IHS Markit today announced that Research Signals, its quantitative equity research product, has enhanced its factor-based investment analyses with 35 cybersecurity risk factors on more than 3,000 public companies. The cybersecurity risk factors are based on security ratings from BitSight, a leading provider of actionable risk intelligence, and deliver investment risk indicators for institutional investors.

“Cybersecurity weakness is an important risk that investors need to monitor, and cases such as Equifax underscore the consequences of data breaches on stock prices,” said Chris Hammond, executive director, Research Signals at IHS Markit. “BitSight Security Ratings provide a quantitative measure of a specific company’s cybersecurity risk, which fits well into quant models and risk models. It’s an example of how alternative data can help investors make better decisions and monitor risks in their portfolio that they were unable to capture in the past.”

Data breaches and cyber incidents can damage a company’s reputation and share price; one recent study found that share prices fall by an average of 5 percent after the disclosure of a data breach. For portfolio managers, having daily insight on cybersecurity risk can enable more informed investment decisions.

"Cyber-attacks can result in significant financial impact to the bottom line, but many investors remain in the dark about the security performance of their portfolio companies," said Jacob Olcott, VP of Strategic Partnerships at BitSight.  "BitSight Security Ratings provide investors critical cybersecurity information that helps them make better investment decisions.  We are glad to work with IHS Markit on this groundbreaking offering for the investor community."  

The BitSight Security Rating Platform generates objective, quantitative measurements on a company’s security performance to produce daily security ratings ranging from 250 to 900. BitSight analyzes security events including malware, vulnerabilities, user behaviors, and more and applies sophisticated algorithms to produce these ratings, which are derived using externally observable, non-intrusive methods.

“The digitalization of data has created opportunities for cybercriminals, and as markets become more automated, there are more channels for data breaches,” said Virginie O’Shea, research director at Aite Group. “Across sectors, companies are taking action to reduce cybercrime, but they must continue to be aware of any risk that can emerge along with innovation.”

Research Signals from IHS Markit provides investment analyses on more than 30,000 securities in 80 countries, supporting selection and strategy development for asset managers, fund administrators, hedge funds and investment banks. With more than 400 factors studied and 20 years of historical data, the Research Signals team focuses on traditional and specialty themes such as value, quality, momentum, short interest, social media sentiment, ESG and cybersecurity.

BlueData, provider of the leading Big-Data-as-a-Service (BDaaS) software platform today announced a partnership with Computacenter Germany. The agreement will enable the IT infrastructure services provider to offer BlueData EPIC software to their enterprise IT customers in the German market.

"Enabling users through the efficient and secure provision of data on-demand means connecting them to meaningful information held in core systems and data center infrastructures, both on or off customers' premises and in the cloud," said Dr. Peter Meitz, lead consultant and solution architect for Big Data at Computacenter Germany. "BlueData is a powerful and innovative solution for Big-Data-as-a-Service and hybrid IT, and it will add huge value to our customers in this area."

BlueData has earned recognition for its innovations in using Docker containers to streamline the provisioning of Big Data workloads in an on-demand, elastic, and multi-tenant architecture. Using BlueData's EPIC platform, IT organizations can improve agility and reduce costs for their Big Data infrastructure - with the ability to spin up instant clusters for Hadoop, Spark, and other large-scale distributed frameworks - while ensuring enterprise-class performance and security.

The company recently announced support for GPU acceleration and deep learning tools (e.g. BigDL, TensorFlow), and introduced initial availability for BlueData EPIC on Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure in addition to Amazon Web Services. BlueData is the first and only Big-Data-as-a-Service solution that can be implemented on-premises, in the public cloud, or in hybrid and multi-cloud deployment models.

"Enterprises in all geographies are embarking on digital transformation and they see the promise of Big Data analytics, data science, and machine learning technologies," said Kevin Dunn, BlueData's director of sales for Europe, Middle East, and Africa. "But they need a faster, simpler, easier, and more cost-effective deployment model. BlueData's solution delivers dramatically faster-time-to-value for these organizations."

BlueData is building strong partnerships to establish its worldwide presence, and the company accelerated its momentum and expansion into new international markets over this past year with 228% annual growth.

"Computacenter is widely regarded as the 'go to' IT provider for many businesses and government organizations throughout Europe," said Dunn. "We're excited to partner with Computacenter Germany to further extend our global reach as the leading Big-Data-as-Service software platform. Together, we can deliver an end-to-end solution to unlock the business value of Big Data for our joint customers."

BlueData is participating and speaking at events in Germany and the UK over the coming months, including DataWorks Summit Berlin (April 16-19) and Strata Data Conference London (May 22-24):

• BlueData's co-founder and chief architect, Thomas Phelan, will present "Lessons learned from running Spark on Docker" on Thursday, April 19th at 16:50 CET at DataWorks in Berlin.
• At Strata in London, Phelan will present "How to protect big data in a containerized environment" on May 23rd at 16:35; he will also co-present "Deep learning with TensorFlow and Spark using GPUs and Docker containers" on May 24th at 12:05 GMT.

IHS Markit, a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions, has implemented its core Enterprise Data Management (EDM) solution and EDM Warehouse at XL Catlin, a global insurance and reinsurance company. The integrated platform is delivered as a managed service, enabling XL Catlin’s investment operations to reap the benefits of a cloud-based solution.

XL Catlin is using EDM to verify security, position and analytics data from multiple investment systems, thereby ensuring data quality. EDM Warehouse aggregates this data into a single repository to provide a clear, consolidated view of the firm’s accounting and investment book of record.

“EDM Warehouse has enabled us to quickly integrate and report on investment data from multiple sources and provided operational savings by replacing a legacy solution,” said Rob Spuler, global head of investment operations for XL Catlin. 

“Firms are faced with increasing demands from regulators and clients to report more data, more frequently,” said Spiros Giannaros, managing director and head of EDM at IHS Markit. “Our EDM Warehouse provides XL Catlin with a historical data repository alongside reporting functionality to help meet these growing requirements.”

Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, together with Worldline, European leader in the payments and transactional services industry, highlights in the new Digital Vision for Financial Services opinion paper how a revolution in digital payments and transactions will dramatically change our relationship with money and all traditional financial organisations and new entrants into the market.

The shift from physical money to digital transactions when combined with new regulation and emerging technologies is creating an environment of radical change across the sector. Further profound implications are expected for traditional insurance structures for example, as Internet of Things and data utilisation methods lead to traditional policies disappearing to be replaced by ones based on real-time and personalised data. 

From more agility and innovation by incumbent operators to innovating at scale by smaller FinTechs, experts argue the full spectrum of Financial Services organisations must fully embrace the challenges, but also the opportunities of Open Banking, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and emerging technologies.

Speaking following a roundtable event held at the new offices of Atos UK and Ireland for the paper’s launch, Adrian Gregory CEO, Atos UK&I said: “Banking and insurance services are evolving at an unprecedented pace. A changing regulatory framework together with rapid advances in technologies are spawning a new era for the financial services industry. As consumers we have potentially more choice, more information and more control than ever before.” 

Presented by some of the leading subject matter experts within Atos and Worldline and across the sector including Salesforce, Microsoft and Dell EMC, Digital Vision for Financial Services positions the current age of digital transformation as arguably the most critical period in Financial Services history.

Rob Price, Chief Operating Officer, Worldline, UK and Ireland: “Digitising payments should help to increase users’ physical safety as well as improving transaction speeds. Yet this will only become a reality when there is the incentive, not only for the consumer – but also the merchant and the bank. This is where the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) will help, improving security and driving innovation so that transactions can be executed more widely.”

Peter Roe, Research Director, Financial Services, TechMarketView LLP, said: ”As Financial Services providers look at the vast array of new technologies at their disposal, they need to consider carefully how they and their suppliers can realise the potential benefits of digital as they modernise their business processes.

“This requires that each party fully understands the specific business processes, the risks inherent in change and the wider implications for organisational culture and behaviours,” added Peter.

This is the seventh paper in the Digital Vision programme and comes after Atos recently announced a multi-year contract with Aviva to deliver data services as part of its digital transformation programme. 

Dubai is set to turn into an epicentre of the latest payment, retail, ecommerce and financial technology, with over 350 exhibitors and expert speakers from across the globe flocking to this year’s much-awaited Seamless Middle East event on April 15 and 16, 2018 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

To be held under the patronage of H.H. Lt. General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, the Middle East's biggest and most important exhibition for payments, fintech, ecommerce and retail is back for the 19^th year to pave the way for seamless transactions and experiences for not only the hundreds of attending companies but also the wider business community.

“The Middle East region is going through an exciting phase, with the UAE claiming 15th rank in the Euromonitor International’s Digital Consumer Index 2017and highest among emerging markets, underlining the government’s commitment to transforming the society and the industries digitally and seamlessly for the future,” says Joseph Ridley, General Manager of Seamless Middle East at Terrapinn.   

While Saudi Arabia is also joining the force by claiming a place among the top five emerging markets, he adds, it further shows that the region is fast turning into a hotbed for the latest innovations and evolutions in the field of fintech, blockchain, ecommerce and payment solutions.

Artificial Intelligence (AI), for instance, is expected to be a major game changer in the global economy, with PwC estimating that AI will contribute up to $15.7 trillion to the world economy and $320 million to the Middle East economy in 2030.

The spending on cognitive and AI systems in the Middle East and Africa region is estimated to grow from $37.5 million in 2017 to over $100 million by 2021, representing a growth rate of 32% a year, adds PwC citing analysis of the International Data Corporation (IDC).

This year’s exhibition will see more than 350 exhibitors participating from across the globe to showcase wide range of innovative products and solutions –from mobile payments, analytics, inventory management and POS, self-service and ATM’s to digital marketing with omni-channel retailing, blockchain and AI.

“With over 10,000 industry professionals and tech enthusiasts, the event will not only acquaint the attendees with what’s new across the globe, but also instigate them to think beyond the obvious and prepare for the future, with a series of thought-provoking keynotes and panels that the top technocrats, disruptors, innovators, and thinkers are going to make over the course of two days,” reveals Ridley.   

This year’s on-floor demo theatres with 60 free sessions will offer insight into various issues that a company faces while taking its business online. “Visitors will get the opportunity to attend the Ecommerce University for a day-long programme, which has been developed to help build, launch and grow a profitable ecommerce business,” he says, adding that the event will also help understand how to create a digital marketing strategy, manage logistics, or develop digital payment and increase customer conversion.

No matter how big or small the business challenges, Ridley says, this power-packed show promises to offer solutions for everything, coupled with a number of live attractions, demonstrations and launches that will help understand what is shaping the future of finance and ecommerce.

The thought-provoking conferences will cover a wide range of topics under various themes including Payments & Fintech, Retail & Ecommerce, , Automation & AI, Blockchain, Mobile Payments & Wallets, Digital ID, Mall of Tomorrow, Omnichannel and delivery & fulfilment.

The event is supported by its title sponsor Dubai CommerCity, a joint venture between the Dubai Airport Freezone Authority (DAFZA) and the Wasl Asset Management Group. The region's first 2.1-million square feet ecommerce free zone has been developed to promote Dubai as a regional hub for e-commerce and support its economic diversification process.

“The participation of Dubai CommerCity is an important strategic step which shows its key role in supporting Dubai's global position as an ideal destination for global e-commerce. Seamless Middle East 2018 is a key attraction for leading global e-commerce companies and we believe that the event will showcase the opportunities within the sector,” says Amna Lootah, Assistant Director General – Finance, Commercial & Customer Relations Division of DAFZA Innovation & Future Unit.  

She highlighted the importance of this strategic exhibition as it coincides with the objectives of Dubai CommerCity, which are based on attracting investments in specialized e-commerce, retail and smart payment solutions.

Seamless Middle East 2018 will have many attractions for visitors who will get a chance to learn from the seminars and demos through a series of thought-provoking installations and live interactive launches, showcases and interviews, located within the exhibition floor.

Some of the other interesting things to watch out for include:

FINTECH SHOWCASE

New for 2018, this fintech showcase will feature an all-star lineup of international and regional fintech companies, that are disrupting traditional retail banking, institutional and corporate banking, insurance and lending.

LAUNCH PAD

This is where genuine innovation is showcased as the latest products and services never before seen in the Middle East are unleashed.

It’s an exciting focal point for press, investors and buyers looking to learn about the newest technologies which are transforming the way we do business and will give you a competitive advantage in a crowded market.

Companies included in this year’s launch pad are Beijing Wiseasy Technology, Capillary Technologies, DataProm, Intellect Commerce, Invomate, Krish TechnoLabs, Microblink, Network International, Renome-Smart, Software Group, Twixor and V-Count, with more to be announced.

START-UP ZONE

With the explosion of new and innovative ecommerce companies over the past 12 months, Seamless Middle East presents one of the biggest opportunities in the region. Visit the Start-Up Zone to meet ground breaking start-ups in the regional commerce space.

PITCH-OFFS

Sponsored by OMA Emirates Group, the Pitch-Off will see fintechs and commerce startups from across the world pitching their products or solutions for five minutes to our expert panel made up of VC’s, funds and consultants to win a cheque of $5,000 and a potential investment up to $500,000. Companies competing in the pitch off include Point Checkout, Yalla Bargain, Zicon, SAAS coin, PIP IT and Twixor.  Niranj Sangal, Group CEO of OMA Emirates commented “The companies that we have shortlisted are based on the ideas that they have put forth and the disruptive technologies that could help consumers with the maximum benefit.”

Novasentis, a leading developer of film based haptic actuators, announced that it won the IDTechEx 2018 Award for Best New Material for Wearables. The award was presented at IDTechEx's Emerging Technologies show in Berlin on April 11th, recognizing Novasentis' unique and patented polymer based haptic actuators which are being designed into AR/VR controllers, smart watches and other Wearables.

Novasentis has created haptic actuators using Electro Mechanical Polymer (EMP) technology, that are feather lite, paper thin (150 microns), and can vibrate at any frequency (few Hz to KHz).  The Novasentis EMP actuators can be embedded in the surface of any devices to act as a haptic skin capable of providing both localized and meaningful haptic feedback.

Novasentis transitioned from lab to pilot last year and has commenced design activities with several large OEMs on VR/Gaming and Wearable device makers. And its actuators will shortly commence shipping from a mass production factory.

"On behalf of the independent judges and IDTechEx, I congratulate Novasentis on creating a unique haptic materials technology that brings life into AR/VR applications and gaming devices," said Raghu Das, CEO of IDTechEx. "We have been following Novasentis' progress over the years and are delighted to see that they are getting traction in Wearables applications that we believe will continue to grow rapidly in the next three years."

The market for haptic technology is forecasted to grow to nearly $3b by 2027 per James Hayward, Sr. Technology Analyst at IDTechEx, he expects polymer based haptic technologies like that of Novasentis to grow faster than competing technologies.

"We are thrilled to receive the 2018 Best New Materials Award for Wearables from IDTechEx," said Francois Jeanneau, CEO of Novasentis. "We had been working on perfecting our haptic actuator technology and our work has been validated by customer design wins, investment from key supply chain partners and prestigious industry awards such as this one from IDTechEx. On behalf of our entire team of employees, board of directors and supply chain partners, I thank IDTechEx for this honor."