Vaultbank (www.vaultbank.io), and its technologically advanced and innovative suite of financial services, has announced the upcoming launch of the Vaultbank Exchange, a decentralized utility token and security token supporting exchange. Vaultbank will also run an investment fund that will serve as the main asset-backing for Vaultbank’s (VB) private security token, and the company is currently in negotiations with select major payment processors for a crypto debit card program.  The Vaultbank (VB) token presale,  launched on January 17, 2018, will stay open with a discount until February 17 or until $20 million USD is raised, at which time the public sale will begin.

The Vaultbank Exchange, built on Ripple for its fast trading speeds, intends to offer lower trading fees, investor verification and compliance, and maximum security along with  enabling users to be in complete control of their private keys and all deposits and withdrawals. The Vaultbank Exchange will not only serve as a trading platform, it will also be a launching pad for new securities coming to market. The Vaultbank Exchange is scheduled to be delivered in Q1 2018, with a soft beta launch by the end of February.

“We are seeing centralized exchanges being hacked, and also extremely high exchange fees being charged,” said Austin Trombley, President and CTO of Vaultbank. “We are developing the Vaultbank Exchange to offer enhanced security, lower transaction fees, and the ability for institutions to bring securities-like mutual funds to market through our platform,  in full compliance with KYC, AML, FATCA, and other investor verification requirements.”

Vaultbank is executing its VB token sale with CrowdEngine, a compliance automation solution that supports compliant token sales in the United States using Regulation D, Regulation S, Regulation A+, and Regulation CF.  CrowdEngine has been providing compliance technology, including international KYC and US investor accreditation services to leading companies worldwide since 2014.

VB private security tokens will be asset-backed by the Vaultbank Fund, which will consist of secured credit assets. VB token holders will participate in future earnings of Vaultbank’s business lines including but not limited to the Vaultbank Fund, the Vaultbank Exchange, and the Vaultbank debit card program,  through potential quarterly dividends as well as potential proportionate ownership distribution in the event of a company sale. Vaultbank intends to pay, but does not guarantee payment of, quarterly dividends in Ethereum by the end of Q2 2018.

Vaultbank’s board of directors includes former BlackRock CIO Ken Kroner, former Third Point Capital partner Keri Findley, former MasterCard Head of Digital Commerce (MEA) Aaron Oliver, Gyft co-founder CJ MacDonald, former Bank of America Managing Director Mike Gay and other experts from across the financial services and technology sectors.

FlexTrade Systems (@FlexTrade), a global leader in multi-asset execution and order management systems, today announced the appointment of Paul Alves as Senior Vice President, Global FX Business Development, with a focus on expanding the company’s buy-side trading solutions to asset managers.

According to Alves, automation efficiency, execution flexibility and cost conciseness for both the asset manager and their bank partners, are key areas in which the buy side is now focused. “One size no longer fits all, and asset managers are looking for solutions that support varying degrees of execution automation and workflow customization, while expanding their available execution methods and minimizing risks. Regulatory requirements, liquidity access and increased efficiency demands are all driving asset managers to evaluate how they execute their FX trades. The need for a FX solution that incorporates all these factors into their trading environment while containing costs is critical.”

Continued Alves, “In addition to the multi-asset class capabilities inherent with FlexTrade, the proven trade automation functionality coupled with the full breadth of execution methods and allocation support makes FlexTrade uniquely positioned to meet the needs of the market.”

With a 20+ year career in sales and business development, Paul Alves joins FlexTrade’s Boston office after spending the last 14 years in management roles within the FX Connect suite of products, where he most recently served as Senior Managing Director, Global He ad of Trade Services, FX Connect’s post-trade platform. Prior to FX Connect, Alves worked for Moneyline/Telerate as Vice President of Sales for the Eastern Region, where he managed sales for the company’s real-time information and enterprise delivery platforms and analytic applications. Earlier management/sales positions include terms at Financial Technologies International and Reuters America Inc.

“With the buy side looking to increase their automation processes in aggregation and trading execution, it is a prime time to enhance our FX business leadership,” said Vijay Kedia, President and CEO of FlexTrade. “As such, it’s a pleasure to welcome Paul Alves to our FX team. His many years of experience in the FX industry will complement our efforts to expand our solutions and increase our global footprint in FX.”

Switch Datacenters, a European provider of build-to-suit corporate data centers and enterprise-grade colocation facilities, announces the launch of its wholesale Data Center as a Service program enabling rapid data center deployment on a global scale. The program provides organizations the opportunity to license Switch Datacenters’ patented data center technologies and obtain an integrated, full-service data center infrastructure package with highly energy-efficient cooling (calculated pPUE: 1.03-1.06), modular power infrastructure and racks included.

Heavy investments in R&D activities by Switch Datacenters have resulted in ‘state-of-the-art’ data center infrastructure featuring Dutch engineered, patented indirect adiabatic cooling technologies; highly modular thus scalable solutions for power supply; and (remote) data center management (custom DCIM software). 

Lately, substantial effort has gone into integrating these R&D efforts and bundling it into an integrated offering. The result? A highly energy-efficient, fixed quality data center design with a calculated pPUE between 1.03 and 1.06, utilizing pre-fabricated components to reduce time-to-market. The actual pPUE figure will depend largely on the climate where the data center build is being located. Moreover, this data center infrastructure is OCP-ready, which means that it is suitable for Open Rack Systems based on Open Compute Project (OCP) principles. 

Switch Datacenters’ data centers delivered through the program are being built in the Netherlands, then shipped to worldwide locations depending on customer requirements. Its built-to-suit data center design has already been deployed for IBM in the Netherlands, for example. The design would be a good fit for a wide range of data center deployments including large-scale as well as small-scale data centers, with potential electrical loads from 5 to 100 MW. 

Racks, Security, Remote Management 

Switch Datacenters’ newly launched Data Center as a Service program is an end-to-end solution including the racks and deployment of security technologies onsite. Automated remote data center management tools would allow data centers on almost any scale to run with little onsite engineering support. The program with a global reach provides for engineering capabilities on-site though, to provide deployment quality assurance and ease of operation.

Switch Datacenters’ Data Center as a Service program enables organizations worldwide to have a quick-start when deploying enterprise-grade, highly energy-efficient data center infrastructure. The program is aimed at a wide range of potential customers including Cloud Services Providers (CSPs), Managed Services Providers (MSPs), data center owners/operators, hyper-scale data center providers, and real estate owners. Potential licensing partners from a variety of countries worldwide have already shown interest in the Data Center as a Service program, including companies from the U.S., France, Dubai, Sweden, and the African continent.

“Our Data Center as a Service program provides hyper-scale data center providers, enterprises, cloud services providers and real estate owners alike the opportunity to deploy new data centers within short-term notice,” said Gregor Snip, CEO and founder of Switch Datacenters. “By joining our program, organizations are able to get their new data centers, even large-scale ones, up and running within about 3-months time - which is quite fast actually. Besides that, our technologies guarantee high levels of operating efficiencies with significantly reduced operating costs.”

The Data Center as a Service program offers four major types of options for delivering Switch Datacenters’ in-house developed and patented data center technologies, which include:

• Customer Data Center Ownership – a customer obtains full ownership of the data center build. License fees are paid for design, patents for cooling technology and rapid power deployment, as well as maintenance.
• Hybrid Data Center Delivery – this option provides for shared ownership and shared responsibilities of the data center build. This model helps to remove the burden of high upfront costs from the customer as Switch Datacenters is participating financially. A customer remains in control though, while able to utilize Switch Datacenters patented data center technologies.
• Full Service Lease Data Center – this monthly fee package option provides end-to-end data center deployment and operational services, with the highest level of customer care delivered by Switch Datacenters. Without the usual upfront costs, a customer can immediately take advantage of the professional data center infrastructure being implemented.
• Cooling and/or Power as a Service – a customer only pays for the patented cooling and power technologies being implemented. This could be an ideal option for existing data center builds, for companies intending to green their operations by implementing sustainable, energy-saving data center technologies.

Nordea Bank AB (publ) has today, on behalf of the wholly owned subsidiary Nordea Holding Abp (“Nordea Finland”) applied for the admission of Nordea Finland’s shares to trading on Nasdaq Helsinki, Nasdaq Stockholm and Nasdaq Copenhagen. 

The application is part of the preparations for the planned re-domiciliation of the parent company to Finland. Provided that the re-domiciliation is carried out, which among other things requires a decision at Nordea’s AGM on 15 March 2018, and that Nasdaq Helsinki, Nasdaq Stockholm and Nasdaq Copenhagen approve the application the intention is that trading in Nordea Finland’s share will commence during autumn.

“We started exploring blockchain technology as a result of client feedback and because we believe that blockchain is a major technology milestone which can be leveraged to solve many transparency issues the financial world is facing today,” commented David VINCENT, CEO of smartTrade Technologies. “Innovation is what drives smartTrade and while our post-trade Distributed Ledger is our first blockchain-based application, we are already exploring how to expand our use of this technology,” he concluded.

TIBCO Software Inc., a global leader in integration, API management, and analytics, is expanding the scope of its partnership with TXODDS, a global leader in real-time betting odds, with the provision of TIBCO Spotfire® data visualisation software for fast and simple analysis of betting data.     

The move builds on the 2014 project which saw TXODDS choose TIBCO StreamBase® to deliver its API-based, real-time betting analytics solution to the betting industry. TXODDS analyses the fluctuations in real-time odds across multiple sports markets and makes this information available to subscribers who integrate its feed into their respective processing systems.

The addition of Spotfire® technologies, part of the TIBCO Connected Intelligence platform, is part of the betting operator’s strategy to help smaller industry players monitor their betting activity and benchmark their performance in a simple, intuitive way. Pre-configured templates for data preparation, visualisation, and predictive analysis cover both real-time data and historical intelligence for statistical analysis to create a full picture of activity and quick, easy comparisons with competitors.

“New and smaller companies who don’t necessarily have internal technical expertise may require more handholding when it comes to odds monitoring,” said Mark Greatorex, vice president sales, EMEA, TIBCO. “Spotfire offers a simple log-in portal and live dashboard for straightforward benchmarking and reporting of how they are doing within a particular market. This becomes a vital tool for driving continual improvement and faster, smarter decision-making in an industry which demands the quickest of reactions to rapidly changing conditions.”

The data and analytical tools combine to provide an overview of general market trends, pre-game and in-play odds, as well as highlight specific match markets, which are contrary to these patterns.  Users can, for example, compare the top 10 highest-performing bookmakers for the selected hour of the day, while also breaking down the data by sports, bookies and odds type, as well as for single matches. Furthermore, as betting patterns can highlight potentially fraudulent activity for investigation, Spotfire will be utilised to provide visual insights for TXODDS’ ongoing work in sports integrity.

As a business that is underpinned by handling constant streams of information in real-time, TXODDS cites TIBCO’s integration capabilities, which combine real-time data with historical intelligence in one seamless feed, as a core driver of speed and innovation. In total, this collaboration has removed latency, improved transparency, and increased profits for TXODDS.

“Both TIBCO and TXODDS define themselves as real-time data specialists, which is why this union is driving deeper insight and integrity into the betting industry,” said Einar Knobel, chief executive officer, TXODDS. “Adding Spotfire to the proposition heightens the opportunities for a broader section of the global sports betting industry to connect directly to, and respond to, events happening 24/7 in the marketplace. In turn, it will also help us meet the growing expectations of today’s more informed sports betting professional.”

Today Maitland, one of the leading global advisory and fund administrators for listed funds, announced that it has been chosen as the fund administrator for two Guernsey domiciled funds: Tufton Oceanic Assets and CIP Merchant Capital. 

Both firms listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) at the end of last year, making them two of three Guernsey domiciled funds to list on the exchange in 2017. 

Maitland supported Tufton Oceanic Assets and CIP Merchant Capital in the lead up to, during and post the IPO, working closely with the placing agents and Gowlings WLG, who were the legal counsel for both funds. Maitland continues to provide both firms with fund administration and company secretarial services.  

Ian Horswell, Senior Business Development Manager at Maitland, said: “Administration of listed funds is a sweet spot of ours. Supporting two of the three Guernsey domiciled firms that listed on the LSE last year has been very exciting for us. After a number of months working closely with the placing agents and legal counsel it was great to get both funds listed just ahead of Christmas. With our Guernsey presence established last summer, we are excited for what 2018 will hold for the business and look forward to a long lasting and successful relationship with both Tufton Oceanic Assets and CIP Merchant Capital.”

Maitland is now the administrator for over 20 LSE listed funds which totals over £4.5bn of assets under administration. These funds are covered from Maitland’s three dedicated service centres in Chelmsford, Edinburgh and Guernsey. 

Tufton Oceanic Assets Limited raised $91m USD when it listed on the specialist funds segment of the London Stock Exchange on 20th December 2017. CIP Merchant Capital raised £55m on the AIM market (part of the LSE) on 22nd December 2017.

These deals follow the acquisition Maitland made in August last year of Guernsey-based fund administrator, R&H Fund Services (Guernsey) Limited.

Innovus Consulting Services, an international consulting company in the fields of cybersecurity and digital transformation, along with Silicon Valley analytic software firm FICO announced today that Innovus has joined the FICO^® Enterprise Security Score partner program. Through the partnership, Innovus Consulting Services will incorporate the FICO^® Enterprise Security Score into its portfolio of solutions and services. The FICO Enterprise Security Score enables Innovus clients to accurately assess cybersecurity risk within their own organisation, as well as monitor the risk of their vendors. 

"Executive leaders are looking for a trusted benchmark to help them quantify cybersecurity risk as well as measure the performance of their cybersecurity investments," said Doug Clare, vice president of cybersecurity solutions at FICO. "Innovus Consulting Services’ capabilities in digital transformation — including penetration testing, security process and posture assessment, remediation and customer awareness — enable outcome-based solutions that are greater than the sum of their parts. Our Enterprise Security Score complements these capabilities with an empirical, data-driven approach to ongoing cyber risk quantification."

“Our customers are embarking on a digital transformation journey, and it’s imperative that they know where they are in the process, what they need to do and who they are doing it with, especially in regard to cybersecurity," said Lou Cirillo, Sr. Partner, Innovus Consulting Services. "The FICO Enterprise Security Score enables customers to get a sense of their current risk and benchmark their journey to accelerate risk mitigation and monitoring across the enterprise. The industries where we are most active, including smart cities, mining, retail, health and government, will benefit from the empirical risk assessment and visibility that the FICO Enterprise Security Score provides."

The FICO^® Enterprise Security Score provides an easy-to-understand metric that facilitates empirically informed board-level risk assessment, third-party vendor management, and cyber breach insurance underwriting. The FICO Enterprise Security score gives organisations a quantitative measure of the likelihood of significant cyber breach in the next 12 months.  The solution outlines current threat profile characteristics and granular insights into potential security issues to facilitate security posture remediation and continuous improvement processes.