Published
- 02:00 am
SWIFT’s latest RMB Tracker reveals a mixed year for the Chinese currency’s growth in 2017 and identifies some of the critical factors for success in 2018.
Despite the growing importance of China in the global economy and the various strategic measures put in place to support its currency, SWIFT’s report shows that RMB usage accounted for 1.61% of domestic and cross-border payments in December 2017.
Hong Kong remains the largest RMB clearing centre with 76% activity share, while London remains the largest clearing centre outside of Greater China. However, its share of global RMB clearing activity decreased from 6.51% in 2016 to 5.59% in 2017.
The currency is, nevertheless, showing promising signs as it gains pace on digital platforms. Mobile services that expanded usage of the RMB, such as Alipay and WeChat Pay, as well as international initiatives such as SWIFT gpi, continued to grow rapidly throughout the year. 22 Chinese banks have now adopted gpi, helping make RMB payments faster, more transparent and fully traceable.
In addition, the prominent role of the CNY/USD pair remained unchanged: 97.08 percent of RMB trading by value is against the USD and there is no substantial liquidity in any other RMB pair.
SWIFT’s RMB Tracker presents a monthly ranking and weighting of the RMB compared to other currencies worldwide. This special edition presents a broader analysis of usage in 2017 and initiatives, projects and trends impacting RMB internationalisation.
According to the report, some of the major trends impacting internationalisation in 2018, will include:
· The emergence of a cashless society mainly driven by digital giants Alipay and WeChat Pay;
· Expanded trade links between Asia, Africa and Europe through China’s Belt and Road Initiative;
· Continued globalisation of Chinese banks and their adoption of the SWIFT gpi service.
“The RMB has had a difficult year in 2017 and struggled to realise its potential for growth,” said Michael Moon, Head of Payments Markets, APAC at SWIFT. “Experts suggest that capital controls and uncertainties over future regulations mean that a significant reversal of the decline in RMB usage for trade and payments is unlikely in 2018. However, there are promising programmes being put in place that could lead to growth over the longer term. Initiatives, such as SWIFT gpi strongly support RMB internationalisation as it is rapidly picking up pace in China. As of today, 22 Chinese banks have joined the initiative and China-US is the main corridor for payments on gpi, confirming the rapid pace of adoption. SWIFT gpi allows for payments to be settled in minutes around the world, ensuring China remains one of the world’s most attractive and economically competitive places to do business.”
Rene Hendrikse
Vice President & Managing Director EMEA at Mitek
Europe is getting serious about money laundering. AMLD 4 regulations are already here and AMLD 5 is on the way. see more
- 08:00 am
Profile Software, an international financial solutions provider, announced today the selection of its Axia system by Twenty First Capital, an independent asset management company with operations in France, United Kingdom and Luxembourg, to automate their fund management and private portfolio management processes using a single platform.
Twenty First Capital is a forward thinking portfolio management firm with more than 1bn euros of AUM, a customer base of institutional investors and private clients as well as a growing and experienced team of Investment professionals. They manage 21 funds providing a range of high-performing and specialised options, following strategies for listed/unlisted credit, Stock Pickings, Emerging Markets, Commodities, etc. Twenty First Capital also has a specialised department offering OPPCIs (real estate collective investment undertakings).
Following an international vendor assessment including several local French vendors, Twenty First Capital selected Axia to manage all fund and private portfolio management operations under a single, web-based platform, taking advantage of the modern design, omni-channel capabilities, flexible reporting and numerous widgets available on the dashboard. The use of Axia asset management tools will enable them to access their investments at any time, manage the full trade life-cycle from orders to settlements and reconciliation, automate connectivity with Custodians and ensure compliance with international standards, offering complete portfolio management services with advance communication.
Stanislas Bernard, CEO at Twenty First Capital, commented: “Due to the diversity of our portfolio and modern approach to the business, Profile was evaluated as the ideal partner in deploying a flexible, innovative, omni-channel system that fully meet the requirements of our international operations and forward-thinking approach. We were very satisfied with the design and capabilities of Axia platform for our portfolio management operations”.
“Deploying our Axia platform in Twenty First Capital in France, which will also be utilised in the United Kingdom and Luxembourg, further supports our commitment to developing innovative, advanced systems for the modern investment managers that help them accelerate their business, comply with the regulation and deliver unique client experience. We are very pleased with their choice and we look forward to developing a long lasting relationship to effectively support Twenty First Capital’s operations as they expand” commented by Babis Stasinopoulos, CEO at Profile Software.
Axia is an omni-channel investment management platform that is continuously being enriched with new and state-of-the-art functionality, offering a competitive user interface and reporting across functions creating value to the Firm’s operations for portfolio management, customer service, seamless integration and compliance.
- 04:00 am
SimCorp, a leading provider of investment management solutions and services to the global financial services industry, today announces that the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago has signed a partnership agreement with SimCorp North America.
The Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago will implement SimCorp Dimension to manage the investment operation of the country’s US$8.4 billion foreign exchange reserves.
The Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago has continually sought to evolve its operations throughout the decades, in order to meet global best practice. The implementation of SimCorp Dimension will further this endeavor, serving the central bank with a highly standardized solution for its foreign exchange reserve operations. SimCorp’s automated investment solution will deliver full front to back office support in one integrated system.
Operating amidst increasing market complexity, the central bank will benefit from SimCorp Dimension’s scalable solution with minimal need for customization. Straight Through Processing (STP) and exception based workflows will provide the front, middle and back offices with transparent and streamlined management of the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
Advanced front office functionality features a significant part of the central bank’s operational overhaul. It will enable the efficient management of cash transactions and the processing of SWIFT formatted cash transfers. Trade entry optimization and pre/post trade compliance will form other important functions, for instance enabling the front office with automatic alerts on threshold breaches. With its centralized Investment Book of Record (IBOR), SimCorp Dimension will serve the central bank with a single source of accurate and timely data for performance measurement, risk assessment and portfolio management, providing a unified view across asset classes.
As part of the agreement, SimCorp will deliver the following functionality to the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago:
• IBOR to support investment decision making, improved risk management and stakeholder reporting
• Processing and optimization of trade entry
• Transparent pre/post trade compliance
• Cash forecasting
• Reconciliation and exception management
• Event management and drill down
• Full instrument coverage for the entire investment lifecycle
• Straight through processing (STP) across workflows including; trade management, transaction workflow monitoring, processing of settlement instructions and reconciliation matching
• Portfolio management, including the ability to define and differentiate portfolios by objectives, e.g. liquidity and investment portfolios
• Comprehensive chart of accounts in both reporting and base currency (the United States Dollar)
• SWIFT settlement processing
• Complete and fully traceable audit trail for all reporting requirements
The Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago said: “We are pleased to partner with SimCorp. A critical criteria for our rigorous evaluation and decision process, was to partner with a firm that offered a standardized solution with little need for customization, to support our entire investment lifecycle. SimCorp Dimension stood out in our evaluation for the level of automation provided for Straight Through Processing, across the front, middle and back offices.”
James Corrigan, Executive Vice President and Managing Director, SimCorp North America commented: “It is a privilege to welcome the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago into our established community. The partnership underlines SimCorp’s ability to deliver a best-in-class solution to central banks around the globe. This, together with our consolidated approach to investment management, more than meets the needs of banking institutions, empowering them with greater control and agility, to compete on a global scale.”
- 02:00 am
Nuance Communications, Inc. today announced that its voice biometrics solution has hit a milestone for adoption of its authentication and fraud-prevention platform that is unsurpassed in the industry with over 300 million consumers making more than five billion successful voice authentications yearly using Nuance biometrics technology.
The growing list of leading enterprises successfully leveraging Nuance biometrics come from a diverse set of industries and are seeing rapid and widespread customer adoption of the technology. The Australian Taxation Office, ICICI Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Santander, TalkTalk, and Vodafone Turkey are among the 20 organisations that have each enrolled more than 1 million voiceprints in their deployments of Nuance’s Security Suite, easily authenticating customers and preventing fraudsters from illegal access.
This ‘biometric boom’ is echoed by leading industry analyst firm, Forrester Research, which noted: “As users increasingly demand frictionless authentication everywhere, biometrics solutions have garnered significant attention for both authentication and fraud prevention — especially on mobile and IoT devices. Furthermore, as their adoption increases, they will hasten the demise of the industry's least user-friendly method — passwords.” *
Biometrics can ultimately kill passwords while also improving CSAT and Net Promoter Scores, reducing risk, and improving key operational measurements along the way. Less apparent to the user, but equally as valuable, is the ability for biometrics to tackle consumer fraud head-on. In fact, every dollar of fraud costs organisations nearly 2.5 times more than the actual loss itself (LexisNexis).
With the security of PIN- and password-based systems under near-constant attacks by hackers, new technologies, like biometrics, can save organisations millions while keeping customers happy and their accounts safe. Nuance Security Suite enables organisations to authenticate customers with voice, face or other biometric modalities to stop fraudsters in their tracks. Security Suite applies deep neural networks (DNN) and advanced algorithms to detect synthetic speech, recordings, and brute force attacks, taking fraud prevention to new levels.
In addition to improving customer experiences via easy and seamless authentication, global organisations across various industries have seen meaningful results by implementing Nuance’s biometrics technology for fraud prevention & mitigation:
• A top 5 UK bank caught 4 million pounds ($5.5 million) of fraud attempts in just under a year after introducing biometrics
• A top UK bank prevented over 200 cases of fraud in just under 6 weeks, which led to savings of 4.5 million pounds ($6.2 million)
• A large US telco prevented over $1m in fraud losses by preventing expensive smartphones to be shipped out to fraudsters
• A government agency prevented fraudsters from compromising citizen accounts, protecting identities of citizens.
“The nearly two dozen leading enterprise customers that have surpassed the million-voiceprint mark, along with the impressive results in fraud reduction and improvement in customer experience, proves that biometrics are on a trajectory for continued large-scale adoption,” said Brett Beranek, Director of Security Strategy at Nuance. “Organisations understand that they need to fight fraud in an aggressive way while at the same time ensuring users have a convenient method for authentication. As the leader in this market, we are proud to partner with forward thinking organisations to replace PINS, passwords, and knowledge-based questions with biometric authentication.”
- 02:00 am
Nomura Research Institute, Ltd. (NRI), a leading global provider of system solutions and consulting service, today announced an entirely revamped I-STAR, NRI’s securities back-office solution for wholesale brokerage firms, which has been rebranded as “I-STAR/CORE.”
As part of the rollout, all existing I-STAR clients, including global top investment banks, have successfully migrated to I-STAR/CORE as of the end of December 2017, as scheduled.
Financial institutions’ needs are drastically diversifying in response to ever-constant innovation and system reforms in capital markets, including the shortening of JGB settlement cycles. NRI chose to revamp I-STAR, the industry’s de facto standard solution in the Japanese market, to best meet these changing needs, enabling financial institutions to keep pace with the advancement of capital market standards.
As part of the migration, NRI eliminated the mainframe system used for I-STAR and have instead implemented a server-based system for I-STAR/CORE. As a result, I-STAR/CORE provides enriched real-time processing, reliability and expandability. Users are already enjoying a significant reduction of nighttime batch and enhanced monitoring functions for exceptions. Recovery time objective is reduced by half, while security and audit functions are enhanced, and functionality is streamlined.
“We care greatly about the demands of our customers, and as we saw the popularity of I-STAR grow we made sure that we continued to listen to their functionality needs and worked diligently to provide them a solution that addressed them,” says Masaaki Yamazaki, Managing Director of NRI. “The decision to create a revamped system for I-STAR was an obvious one, and we are certain that I-STAR/CORE system will provide increased efficiency and stronger functionality for our valued customers.”
I-STAR/CORE has a dominating share in Japan’s capital markets, including 40 percent of Japanese equity system and 45 percent of Japanese derivative system.
- 06:00 am
Overstock.com announces the launch of a digitally driven investment platform, powered by tZERO Advisors, within the online retailer’s FinanceHub.
“This service introduces robo-advising investment management services to our millions of customers and continues Overstock’s commitment to bridging Wall Street and e-commerce,” said Patrick M. Byrne, Overstock’s founder and CEO.
“Overstock currently delivers world-class service and award-winning customer experiences to as many as 40 million unique visitors per month. They trust us with their home and, more recently, auto purchases,” continued Byrne. “We are excited about this new program that offers our customers the opportunity to bring artificial intelligence to their financial planning.”
tZERO Advisors is powered by FusionIQ’s B2C investment platform. FusionIQ is an innovative fintech company that provides intelligent investment solutions that enable easy online investing.
Investors can select from a group of pre-established Adaptive Dynamic Portfolios that are matched to their investment profile or can create a customized blend of these portfolios for a low-cost monthly fee of $9.95.
The robust platform is driven by FusionIQ’s proprietary algorithms and scoring system that develop and rebalance the Adaptive Dynamic Portfolios based upon dynamic market factors.
John O’Hara
CEO and Co-Founder at Taskize
Efforts to streamline and integrate systems to improve back-office efficiency need not involve major re-engineering but can instead be propelled by use of utility-based platforms. see more
- 03:00 am
Carpe Data, the leading provider of next-generation data products for the insurance industry, has officially launched its suite of next generation data solutions to the international market, initially in the United Kingdom.
"The global insurance industry is going through a metamorphic transformation, and next generation data is one of the key drivers," remarked Geoffrey Andrews, Carpe Data's COO, co-founder, and the member of the executive team leading the expansion into the international marketplace. "The omnipresence of the internet combined with the spread of web, social, and other next generation data, has created an infinite source of new information for insurance carriers around the world to leverage."
Carpe Data serves the insurance industry with automated data and predictive scoring solutions, with offerings that allow carriers to leverage valuable online data and enable them to gain greater insight into risks and significantly enhance many aspects of the insurance life cycle, from prospect identification, intake, validation, underwriting, claims, and renewal to book, market, and product assessment.
In less than a year, Carpe Data has achieved success after success, from raising $6.6 million in Series A funding from Aquiline Technology Growth to a swiftly expanding list of clients and partnerships-most recently implementing their highly predictive online data for claims processing at Allstate with significant results. Carpe Data is led by a team with deep processing roots, uniquely poised to leverage data and technology.
As a leader in InsureTech in the U.S., Carpe Data is focused on fine-tuning its existing products and introducing new products targeted to international markets. "Like the traditions and customs of different countries, there is blend of shared and unique challenges for insurance carriers in each market. We're excited to bring our capabilities to these markets, and customize our products to meet the specific needs of each," he explained.
With every iteration, the team at Carpe Data finds new ways to apply the company's technology to better assist insurance companies increase productivity and profitability, while continuing to provide best-in-class service that meets the highest regulatory standards.
Since inception, Carpe Data has been a leader in defining the methodologies needed to ensure compliance with regulatory and privacy requirements within this new world of next generation data. As it expands internationally, the company has already completed the analysis and required infrastructure buildout to meet the rules of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), a regulation designed to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe that goes into effect May 18, 2018.
- 01:00 am
Cambridge Blockchain today announced a strategic alliance with IHS Markit(Nasdaq: INFO) through which the companies will offer integrated reference data, operations, and software to support utilities for the collection and management of know-your-customer information (“KYC”).
Financial institutions face growing compliance challenges related to identity, with KYC costs that can exceed $500 million annually for large banks. Strict data privacy rules such as the European General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) additionally limit the ability to access validated customer identity attributes, with potential fines up to €20 million or 4% of worldwide revenues. The combination of IHS Markit’s kyc.com services with Cambridge Blockchain’s distributed digital identity system resolves the competing challenges of transparency and privacy, resulting in faster customer onboarding, lower costs, and enhanced compliance through a single, trusted and consistent view of customer reference data.
Launched by IHS Markit in 2014, kyc.com serves 17 global banks and over 140,000 registered legal entities. The service provides standardized operations for client onboarding and due diligence, with a rigorous industry policy standard for KYC data quality and completeness. Cambridge Blockchain’s software complements IHS Markit’s solutions by offering secure, client-controlled peer-to-peer data sharing and a platform to connect multiple identity validators. The companies’ combined offerings are designed to enable full compliance with stringent data privacy rules including GDPR.
“The creation of utilities and other consortia to help financial institutions address the challenges of KYC has great potential improve standards and practices,” said Guy Harrison, managing director and head of KYC Services at IHS Markit. “However, for firms to operate efficiently on a global scale, identity data need to be highly portable. With this in mind, we are pleased to work with Cambridge Blockchain to apply the benefits of distributed ledger technology to a robust KYC data collection, validation and management process.”
“IHS Markit’s existing strengths in bilateral and centralized KYC data sharing make the company an ideal partner to offer new distributed digital identity systems,” remarked Matthew Commons, CEO of Cambridge Blockchain. “We look forward to continuing our collaborating with IHS Markit to give financial institutions confidence that their KYC, AML, tax, legal, MiFID, EMIR and other regulatory information is complete, accurate and up-to-date.”
