Path Solutions today announced that Zain Iraq Islamic Bank for Investment and Finance (Zain Bank), a newly established Islamic retail bank in Baghdad, has selected iMAL Islamic Core Banking System for the launch of its Islamic banking services, as it seeks to tap into the growing demand for Islamic banking products across the country.

After evaluating offerings from a range of international vendors including Temenos, Misys, Oracle FS, ICS Financial Systems and Capital Banking Solutions, Zain Bank decided to go for Path Solutions. This is the company’s second win this year in Iraq following the signing of a strategic partnership agreement with Al Rajeh Islamic Bank in July.

A recent entrant in Iraq, Zain Bank is a newly established Islamic bank with headquarters in Baghdad. The bank has received its Islamic banking license from the Central Bank of Iraq on August 11, 2016 and officially opened its doors on December 4, 2016. With an ambitious expansion plan, Zain Bank aims to become the premier Islamic corporate and retail bank in Iraq by offering its clients world-class digital banking services supported by state-of-the-art Sharia-based technologies. 

Tawfeeq Hashim Tawfeeq, Managing Director, Zain Bank, said, “We selected iMAL because of its excellent reputation in delivering to local banking demands including Islamic banking requirements. This scalable platform will allow us to grow quickly by launching a wide range of innovative Sharia-compliant banking products to meet the demands of our customers in the country. We feel confident that our investment in Path Solutions will pay off by helping us adhere to local standards, attract new business and subsequently win superior market share”.

Path Solutions is enjoying a landmark year, with Islamic banks across the globe selecting its cutting-edge core banking system as the foundation for their Sharia-based banking operations, firmly establishing iMAL as the core banking system of choice for forward-thinking Islamic banks facing diverse industry and market challenges.

Mohammed Kateeb, Group Chairman & CEO, Path Solutions, said, “Iraq experiences increasing momentum in the growth of Islamic banking and we are excited to further build upon our unique position in this country. We are confident that Zain Bank will benefit from our industry know-how to launch and expand its business significantly, and manage future growth in a competitive environment”.

Zain Bank chose Path Solutions’ iMAL because of its proven success in meeting local regulatory requirements and supporting the full range of Islamic banking business models. The new system will empower the bank to provide modern Islamic banking services to its customers and become one of the most forward-looking banks in Iraq.

“We want to provide an enriching, memorable experience to our customers with a wide range of products and services that are both compatible and up-to-date with the digital world and support compliance with Sharia rules”, added Hashim Tawfeeq. “iMAL will enable us to immediately achieve the results we desire, while also providing us with a modern, robust Islamic banking platform to ensure compliance with upcoming regulations. We are proud of partnering with Path Solutions to meet our corporate goals for ambitious growth”.

Zain Bank will implement iMAL*2Mobile and Internet Banking, part of the iMAL banking suite, so that the bank can engage more closely with its customers. Zain Bank has received a license to undertake foreign transactions as well. This is a major growth opportunity for the bank; and to underpin its trade finance and treasury services channels and operations, the bank will also implement iMAL*TradeFinance and Islamic Treasury, in addition to BI, Risk Management and FATCA solutions, the reporting module with its feature-rich and user-friendly web interface, and a next-generation HR operational portal to ensure a modern digital workplace. 

Databricks, provider of the leading Unified Analytics Platform and founded by the team who created Apache Spark(TM), today announced Databricks Delta, the first unified data management system that provides the scale and cost-efficiency of a data lake, up to 100x increase in the query performance of a data warehouse, and the low latency of a streaming ingest system. Databricks Delta, a key component of the Databricks Unified Analytics Platform that runs in the cloud, eliminates the architectural complexity and operational overhead of maintaining three disparate systems: data lakes, data warehouses and streaming systems. With Delta, enterprise organizations no longer need complex, brittle extract, transform, and load (ETL) processes that run across a variety of systems and create high latency just to obtain access to relevant, business-critical data.

"At Edmunds, obtaining real-time customer and revenue insights is critical to our business. But we've always been challenged with complex ETL processing that slows down our access to data," said Greg Rokita, executive director of technology at Edmunds.com. "Databricks Delta allows us to overcome this roadblock by blending the performance of a data warehouse with the scale and cost-efficiency of a data lake.  We now have a simplified data architecture that enables immediate access to business-critical data."

"Many enterprise organizations are struggling with the limitations of data lakes and data warehouses as well as the complexity of managing both and moving data between them," said Ali Ghodsi, cofounder and chief executive officer at Databricks. "Delta combines the performance of data warehouses with the scale of data lakes and low-latency of streaming systems. With this unified management system, enterprises now benefit from a simplified data architecture and faster access to relevant data - increasing their ability to make decisions that drive results. We have solved a massive struggle facing organizations that are on a mission to run their business in real-time."

Databricks Delta delivers the following capabilities to simplify enterprise data management:

• Manage Continuously Changing Data Reliably: Industry's first unified data management system simplifies pipelines by allowing Delta tables to be used as a data source and sink. Delta tables provide transactional guarantees for multiple concurrent writers - batch and streaming jobs. Delta natively supports the real-time needs of the business by enabling a streaming data warehouse to return the most recent, consistent view of the writes. Upserts in Delta provide a clean way to change data after it has been written, instead of running the entire job again.
• Perform Fast Queries Without Manual Tuning: Delta automates performance management, removing the need for tedious performance tuning approaches. Self-optimizing data layout ensure data queried together is stored together. Delta automates compaction of small files for efficient reads. Intelligent data skipping and indexing leads to massive speedups by not reading unneeded data. Automated caching leads to subsequent reads being an order of magnitude faster.
• Provide cost efficiency and scale of Data Lakes: Delta stores all its data in Amazon S3 for cost-efficiency and massive scale. The data in Delta is stored in a non-proprietary and open file format to ensure data portability and prevent vendor lock-in. 
• Integrate with Unified Analytics Platform: Databricks Delta data can be accessed from any Spark application running on the Databricks platform through the standard Spark APIs. Delta also integrates into the Databricks Enterprise Security model, including cell-level access control, auditing, and HIPAA-compliant processing. Data is stored inside customer's own cloud storage account for maximum control.

At Money 20/20, Zafin today announced its new digital origination banking platform and FinTech partner ecosystem, Zafin Origin. 

Building on its commitment to deliver a comprehensive suite of governance, risk and compliance solutions to assist the global financial and corporate communities, Thomson Reuters has expanded its Connected Risk platform to include an Audit Management (AM) solution to help enable firms to better assess risks and increase the efficiency of the auditing process. 

Bluefin Payment Systems, the leading provider of PCI-validated Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE) solutions for education, healthcare and enterprises, announced today that Stephen W. Orfei, the former General Manager of the PCI Security Standards Council (SSC), has joined the company’s Product Advisory Council. 

Bluefin launched its Product Advisory Council in late 2014, after becoming the first provider in North America to receive PCI validation for its P2PE solution. The goal of the Council was to bring together industry experts that had commercialized disruptive FinTech innovations to advise Bluefin on its product and strategic path. The Council is made up of payment and security industry leaders including Dickson Chu, Global Head of Portfolio Management for BBVA and former Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President of Corporate Development at Ingo Money, Inc.; and Jeff Liesendahl, Managing Partner at Island Peak Capital and former CEO and co-Founder of Accertify.

As General Manager of the PCI SSC, Mr. Orfei’s role was to lead the Council in its mission to increase payment data security globally. Mr. Orfei is a recognized industry expert in global payment platforms, Ecommerce, mobile payments, transit and cybersecurity, with over 20 years of experience developing and delivering complex global payment solutions. He also holds several payments industry patents and awards.

“In 2014, when we became the first provider of P2PE in North America, we found ourselves in a unique position of having a solution that, while endorsed by the PCI SSC since 2011, was the very first market entrant. So while the goal was to commercialize our PCI P2PE solution and generate revenue, we found that our immediate task at hand was how to educate the market on the value and benefits of this solution. We decided to form a Product Advisory Council consisting of leaders that had ‘been there, done that’ to guide us along our path,” said Ruston Miles, Chief of Strategy and Innovation for Bluefin.

“As a Participating Organization (PO) of the PCI SSC since 2006, we have worked closely with PCI and Stephen over the years to advance point of sale and Ecommerce payment security. It is a great honor that Stephen has agreed to advise Bluefin on our global P2PE and payment security product expansion.”

Bluefin specializes in PCI-validated P2PE integrated and stand-alone solutions for retail, mobile, call center and unattended environments, and secure Ecommerce technologies including transparent redirect, payment iFrame and tokenization. The company was the first to introduce Decryption as a Service (DaaS) P2PE with their Decryptx® product, which enables payment gateways, processors and software providers to connect to Bluefin via an API and provide the company’s validated P2PE solution through their own platforms. Bluefin has more than 40 partners enabled for P2PE through their Decryptx partner network.

“We cannot prevent our systems and networks from being breached – but we can devalue the data, making it useless in the hands of criminals, organized crime and state-funded actors. Bluefin’s encryption and services do exactly that by helping merchants and service providers get connected, encrypted, and protected. I have always been impressed with Bluefin’s ability to implement their solutions and solve for both SMB and complex payment environments. They walk the talk,” stated Stephen W. Orfei.

Baker Hill, a leading provider of technology solutions for common loan origination, risk management, relationship management and smart data analytics, has announced the next release of Baker Hill NextGen™ that includes commercial loan origination for judgmental decisioning, portfolio risk management, client relationship management and exception tracking features.

Launched in January 2017, Baker Hill NextGen™ is a unified, responsive, cloud-based solution for common loan origination, portfolio risk management and business intelligence, designed to meet the needs of financial institutions in a single platform. Baker Hill NextGen™ is the culmination of more than three decades of commercial, small business and both direct and indirect consumer loan origination functionality. The solution combines comprehensive loan origination features with the latest technical advancements in cloud and mobile computing, streamlining lending processes and portfolio risk management while improving accuracy and enabling a better customer experience. 

The newest release of Baker Hill NextGen™ brings new functionalities to the solution, such as commercial loan origination for judgmental decisioning, which promotes efficiencies in the commercial underwriting process by optimizing the credit approval process through workflow automation and established business rules. Other features include portfolio risk management, client relationship management and exception tracking. With the addition of Baker Hill NextGen™ portfolio risk management, financial institutions can combine risk management capabilities with quality data to save time, mitigate risk and gain a comprehensive view of the loan portfolio with automated monitoring. 

Baker Hill NextGen™ incorporates exception tracking within the solution, helping institutions mitigate risk with a secure, comprehensive solution for managing exceptions across all lines of business. This feature provides a flexible and consistent framework for securely monitoring document, financial statement, policy, compliance, and exception management. Additionally Baker Hill NextGen™ client relationship management provides financial institutions with actionable insight to empower staff to more effectively manage new opportunities and current relationships. Baker Hill NextGen™ CRM captures and manages relevant client and prospect information, including contacts, call activity, sales opportunities, referrals and correspondence groups. By combining business processes and client information across departments and integrating data into one solution, financial institutions can easily enhance the client experience.

“With more than three decades of experience as a trusted advisor to financial institutions, Baker Hill has gained valuable insight on what today’s financial institutions need and what issues they face,” said Niles Bay, chief operating officer and chief technology officer of Baker Hill. “We have recognized that banks and credit unions struggle with multiple non-integrated systems and data overload, which prevents them from making data-backed decisions. We’ve addressed those needs with the continued development of Baker Hill NextGen™ and remain committed to delivering innovative technology that enables our clients to keep up with an evolving market.”

DigiPulse, the world’s first ‘digital cryptocurrency vault’ which provides an inheritance service for digital and crypto assets, today – Tuesday, October 24 2017 – launched its Alpha version.

This live Alpha preview will give public access to the DigiPulse service, which offers decentralised data storage on the blockchain and enables customers to safely secure and pass on their digital assets to those they care about when they pass away. These assets can include cryptocurrencies, digital images and other electronic documents. 

DigiPulse CTO Dmitry Dementyev-Dedelis, CEO Normunds Kvilis and Project Manager Jānis Zaltāns at The ICO Event in London

Normunds Kvilis, the firm’s CEO and a former analyst at a leading Scandinavian bank, said, “I’m delighted to be able to announce that the Alpha version of the product is now publicly available.  For a firm to have an Alpha demonstration live at the same time it is raising funds through a token sale is rare, but we think it’s important as seeing is believing.  If people try the system for themselves, they can really share in our vision. 

“Although the product is not still in development, the Alpha gives users the chance to experiment with setting up their digital storage ‘vault’, uploading and storing files on the blockchain, generating private and public keys for the inheritance procedure and logging in with these keys.

“Apart from the Alpha demonstrating our team’s speed and dedication as programmers, the key reason for the Alpha is to provide feedback from customers so that we can improve the user experience (UX).  As this is a test module, we are reminding users not to story anything valuable in their vault!”

While this stage of development resembles the finished product, the team is continuing to produce new features such as multiple vaults and encrypting‘shared keys’ with questions about the inheritor.

The Alpha is available for public testing on DigiPulse.io. More details about the Alpha features can be found on the DigiPulse Alpha Launch blog post (https://blog.digipulse.io/preview-digipulse-alpha-prototype-92ed500a3f15).

Co-founder and CTO of DigiPulse, Dmitry Dementyev-Dedelis, first saw the potential for DigiPulse when he encountered health issues and realised that, if he were to pass away, his family would be unable to access his digital wallet.  His cryptocurrency assets would be effectively lost.

DigiPulse solves this very important issue by allowing its users to store and encrypt information on their own decentralised blockchain. 

Normunds Kvilis continues, “The idea behind DigiPulse is that we are addressing one of the major flaws that cryptocurrencies themselves have, which is that in order to use cryptocurrencies you need to have a digital wallet.

“Cryptocurrency wallets consist of a public address and a password.  If you lose either one of them, your assets are stuck in internet limbo.  We offer, firstly, a way for you to pass your assets on, with an inheritance service, and secondly, a failsafe solution – in case your PC gets lost or your house burns down.  You can still access everything that you have stored. 

“The system is based on smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain, which are put together on top of our own blockchain which encrypts and stores the data in small chunks so it is practically impossible to hack.

“We are seeing a great deal of support from the crypto community because they are in need a product like this.  As people begin to use cryptocurrencies for a broader range of applications and hold significant crypto assets for investment, we must ensure that their families receive their belongings if the worst does happen.”

The DigiPulse system uses what is often known as a ‘dead-man’s-switch’, in connection with the customer’s smartphone, social media account or emails.  If these are not accessed for the agreed period of time – between one day and 18 months – DigiPulse will automatically contact the rightful inheritor.

If the customer chooses to remain anonymous, there is no requirement for them to share their details and the system can work by tracking activity by their digital wallet.

The DigiPulse team is largely based in Riga, Latvia, with connections around the globe.

DigiPulse is currently hosting a token sale which has passed the equivalent of $1million of funding.  The token sale will continue until 31 October 2017.

DigiPulse tokens (DGPT) are sold at a fixed price (with additional tier bonus rewards) of 0.004 ETH (1 ETH = 250 DGPT).