Oromia International Bank (OIB) will be implementing ICSFS’ universal Islamic flagship, ICS BANKS ISLAMIC in its head quarter and its 200+ branches;  this mile stone project will  provide Oromia International Bank with world-class fully integrated banking solutions which are designed and developed following the principles of Shari’a of which; ICS BANKS ISLAMIC Core Banking, Murabaha, Musharaka, Ijara, Istisna’a Tawaruq, Mudaraba, Salam, Qard Hasan, Salam Islamic,  Deposit, Profit Distribution, Investment and Treasury, Trade Finance, Credit Facilities & Risk Groups, Remittances, Internet Banking, DMS, MIS, SMS, Mobile banking.

The signing ceremony took place in Ethiopia, attending the ceremony were the President of the bank; Mr. Abie Sano and the Executive Director of Business Development at ICSFS; Mr. Wael Malkawi.

Following the signing ceremony, The President of the bank; Mr. Abie Sano commented:

“At OIB we are committed to providing full-fledged Interest Free Banking (IFB) and best quality banking services, we have selected ICSFS for its cutting-edge solution, and outstanding products, ICSFS wide experience in the African financial market will assist us fulfil our constant desires to deliver superior services to our esteemed customers, and we will be able to improve our operational efficiency.”

On this occasion, the Executive Director of Business Development at ICSFS; Mr. Wael Malkawi commented:

“We are looking forward for this partnership, where Oromia International Bank will mark our first reference in Ethiopia and will join our expanding leading journey in the African continent, as our vision is reflected with new unleashed Opportunities and new defeated challenges.” Malkawi added “we are looking forward for a long-lasting partnership, where Oromia International Bank will definitely enjoy ICS BANKS ISLAMIC unlimited offerings and advantages.”

Safaricom will over the next three weeks conduct a major upgrade of the M-Pesa platform. 

The Hive Project has announced the development of the first cryptocurrency invoice financing platform focused on providing new liquidity pools for small and medium-sized businesses. 

Warply - one of the top European companies in Mobile Loyalty & Payments - launched the new Warply Keyboard Payments for mobile payments and P2P transactions via messaging apps. 

Consumers wrote nearly two-thirds fewer checks per household in 2015 than in 2000, while total noncash payments per household, which includes not only checks but also card payments and electronic transfers via the automated clearinghouse (ACH) system, expanded almost 95 percent, according to additional results released today from the 2016 Federal Reserve Payments Study.

Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), in collaboration with Japan’s SBI Remit, is using Ripple’s blockchain enterprise solution to power real-time remittance payments between Japan and Thailand. A first for the corridor, Ripple’s cross-border payments network solution is helping remittances from Japan reach SCB retail customers easily and faster than ever before.

Approximately 40,000 Thai nationals currently live in Japan and total remittance flows from Japan to Thailand are roughly USD250 million a year.

The rollout of this new service begins today, and supports individual funds transfers from JPY in Japan to THB in SCB savings accounts in Thailand. Once sent, the funds are credited to an SCB recipient’s account within two to five seconds, a significant uplift compared with the up to two business days it currently can take for a payment to be made between the two countries. SCB plans to roll out the service in other key markets across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Dr. Arak Sutivong, chief strategy officer at SCB, said: “SCB invests in innovative technology, like Ripple, to provide our retail customers with the financial products and services they increasingly need in this digital age. Customers increasingly expect payments to work in real time, whether domestic or international.

“We are proud to be the first bank to use Ripple’s leading blockchain network solution to power real-time payments between Japan and Thailand for our customers, whose families oftentimes depend on the availability of these funds for basic needs - time is of the essence to them. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Ripple as we expand the service into other key markets in the future.”

Mr. Nobuo Ando, representative director at SBI Remit Co., Ltd. said that “It is our duty to continuously search for superior technological solutions to deliver ever improved remittance services for our customers. In this case, Ripple was impressive in concept and turned out to be more so in practice. Furthermore, we can expect to have more favourable foreign exchange opportunities as Ripple’s network expands. For this, we welcome more institutions to join and help us offer competitive remittance services over conventional methods to our valued customers.”

Marcus Treacher, global head of strategic accounts at Ripple, said: “Ripple’s goal is to make cross-border payments move as quickly and as easily as information does today. In the case of SBI Remit and SCB, our solution helps ensure that remittances from Japan reach their destination in Thailand near instantly. SCB and SBI Remit are leading the way in Asia in serving new customer demands for real-time cross-border payments, making theirs a highly competitive offering.

“We are excited to expand our relationship with SCB further across their other key markets, and to continue the momentum with commercial traction for the Ripple network worldwide.”

The implications of the potential roll back on regulation, from Dodd-Frank to a new level of commitment to EMIR and MiFID as a result of Brexit negotiations, are hard to predict. While regulatory compliance (and the associated cost) is seen by some financial institutions as a significant constraint, others have come to recognise the operational benefits associated with better data management. 

The difference in a market not dominated by regulatory demands is the way in which organisations can approach the timing and evolution of their data management (EDM) projects, as well as the way in which vendors will have to respond to make a new business case for investment that reflects cost and business value.

Indeed, the different approaches to EDM deployment that have evolved over the past decade on either side of the Atlantic reflect the new potential for data management best practice. In the heavily regulated EU, banks have invested heavily in EDM in a bid to attain, retain and report on the diverse and complex information sources required by the regulators. And the costs are indicative: for every £1 spent obtaining data, organisations spend upwards of £10 in managing that data due to the combination of escalating data volumes and the complexity of regulatory classification demands.

In the US, in contrast, a lighter regulatory touch has enabled firms to take a different approach towards EDM, where the technology has largely been harnessed to drive down the cost of data ownership through the adoption of scalable, flexible, subscription based, and often cloud solutions.

However, the situation is not, in fact, as clear cut as a ‘regulatory versus cost-based’ EDM deployment. The additional data rigour created in response to regulatory expectations has today actually placed many firms on the cusp of significant financial benefit.

The focus on data modelling and data scope, combined with the prescribed adoption of data standards – such as Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) for counterparties, CFI classification for financial products and the wider adoption of standard product identifiers outside bonds and equities – provide long term benefits. Once the initial compliance requirement has been met, the ability to leverage this standards-based approach to data that has been mandated by regulators will provide organisations with an opportunity to address the data management cost by eradicating much of the expensive data duplication currently in place, whilst also looking for internal efficiencies.

With this foundation, organisations can embrace the cost driven approach. With an emphasis on buying data efficiently and achieving the lowest possible cost of ownership, firms can explore cloud deployment, scalable infrastructure, cost models that flex with usage and a scalable data model that supports any new data structures required and created for new products.

Data management professionals should not face a battle between an investment in EDM to support regulatory objectives versus one focused on operational improvements but a combination of the two. By leveraging the benefits of a standardised data model within a cost first mindset, organisations can attain both data flexibility and data rigour. They can slowly evolve from interim, regulatory focused solutions towards fully operationalised systems that deliver essential, long term data insight.

Britain’s SMEs are shifting the billions spent each year on hiring traditional experts, such as legal and procurement consultants, to leverage the skills required to survive in an increasingly digital world, including those for cybersecurity and new payments technology.

According to research from Barclaycard, which has helped make businesses successful for over 50 years, UK SMEs now invest £2.9bn annually on cybersecurity experts to help them stay ahead of the latest threats. This equates to an average figure of £1,600 per business, with many larger SMEs spending ten times more. The same amount (£2.9bn, or an average of nearly £5,000) is channelled into support for implementing new payment innovations such as contactless technology, which Barclaycard introduced to the UK in 2007.

Small businesses have increased their spending over the last five years on cyber security professionals by 43 percent, and by nearly 31 per cent on payment innovation. SMEs plan to continue investing next year, with spend on cyber security expertise set to increase by 32 percent and payment innovation by 23 per cent.

In contrast, demand for more ‘traditional’ experts is falling. Three in 10 (33 percent SMEs have decreased investment in procurement, for example, as they believe it is becoming less relevant for their business. And the 15 per cent of SMEs who cut spending on legal and compliance experts did so to make way for spending on new skills to future-proof their business.

Managing competing demands

With small businesses facing challenges from all directions – including an uncertain economic landscape and changing consumer preferences – more than a third (34 percent) are worried about their ability to manage these multiple demands and priorities as their business grows.

Such is the concern among SMEs about cybersecurity, for instance, that it is a greater worry for many than the uncertainty surrounding Brexit. Four in ten (44 percent) small businesses fear being victim of a cybercrime or data breach, compared to three in ten (34 per cent) who are anxious about the impact of Brexit on their business.

The research suggests SMEs can make their budget work harder by hiring experts who provide support across multiple areas, especially when it comes to technology. Of the small businesses that increased spending on fraud prevention, for example, a fifth (23 percent) subsequently noticed a rise in sales and customer satisfaction, likely due to improved customer confidence.

The experts of the future

Looking ahead, SMEs will need to engage experts of the future to keep up with nascent trends. This includes ‘next generation’ payment specialists who would advise on emerging technology such as ‘conversational commerce’ – which uses digital assistants to make a purchase – and ‘invisible payments’, where card details are saved in advance of a transaction, such as for one-click ordering. A third (33 per cent) of businesses have never heard of these technologies, despite 44 per cent of consumers being keen to pay in these ways.^**

Beyond the evolution of payments, futurologist David Price predicts that British businesses will face even more challenges and will subsequently need a wide range of experts over the next decade. These include:

• Social purpose consultants who will work alongside SMEs to ensure they respond to growing demands from millennial customers for a service driven by ethical practices
• ‘Tech overload’ therapists to support employees who have become overwhelmed by being part of an ‘always on’ society
• Online experience designers, responsible for improving user experience by incorporating virtual and augmented reality technology into online interactions

Sharon Manikon, Managing Director of Customer Solutions at Barclaycard, said:

“UK SMEs face immense pressure to keep up with competitors of all sizes. This is

all the more challenging in an uncertain political and economic landscape with shifting consumer preferences and new technology that continues to develop at pace.

“As a result, there are more demands on their budget than ever, and these are forcing SMEs to spend smarter. One way to make budgets work harder is to engage suppliers who don't just provide competitively priced products and services – but also offer access to the specialists who provide consultancy to help businesses continue to thrive. This will help SMEs derive the most value from their experts, helping to drive their business forward."

Futurologist David Price said:

“As consumers become more tech-savvy, SMEs are increasingly dependent on their digital presence for survival, and face new pressures from all angles. A deep understanding of emerging technologies – like artificial intelligence, and augmented and virtual reality – will all become ‘must haves’, not luxuries, over the next five to ten years.

“The challenges of this changing landscape also extend well beyond the realms of what you might expect. Businesses will need to think outside the box to cater for the demands of more discerning consumers, for whom social purpose, for example, is now a key priority.”