Published
- 02:00 am
Gemalto, the world leader in digital security and Mobike, world's largest smart bike sharing platform, announced extending its partnership in secure internet connection for Mobike's fleet of bikes.
Gemalto's Cinterion M2M module and Machine Identification Module are embedded in the smart bike lock to transmit location data and operate the lock remotely. As Gemalto's modules are pre-certified with all major network operators worldwide, this collaboration allows Mobike to launch the service worldwide faster and more easily, and other connected services can be added in the future.
Smart solution fuel the booming bike-sharing economy
Mobike's IoT based bike-share solution allows users to conveniently locate the nearest bikes in real time at their exact location by using a Mobike app. This is particularly important as, unlike other bike sharing services, such IoT-based solutions can also allow the Mobike platform to smartly monitor the health status of each bike, manage hot spots, and distribute its fleet of bikes based on user demand for better safety, high operation efficiency, and meeting unmet "last mile" urban mobility needs.
"Innovation has put us in the leading position and made us the largest smart bike-sharing service provider in China and the world. Our next milestone is to launch our IoT based solution in more countries worldwide, and provide a convenient service to commuters and contribute to a healthier lifestyle," remarks Joe Xia, co-founder and CTO of Mobike. "Gemalto's track record in delivering end-to-end secure connectivity and pre-certified solutions help make seamless connections within the global market. Gemalto is with us in China, and as we expanded into our first international markets - Singapore and Manchester. Our ongoing collaboration will help Mobike's International expansion plans."
"Mobike has experienced a tremendous success in China and we feel this can be replicated in other markets with growing demand for more convenient and environmentally-friendly commuting," says Suzanne Tong-Li, SVP Greater China and Korea for Mobile Services and IoT and China President, Gemalto. "Connected bikes hold huge potential for additional mobility capabilities, such as on-demand connectivity, biometric authentication, user-preference-based personalization services and other mobility services."
- 07:00 am
Bank of America Merrill Lynch once again, seizes first place on the Emerging Europe, Middle East & Africa Research Team, Institutional Investor's exclusive annual ranking of the region's best sell-side analysts, marking a fifth straight win for the firm.
Citi adds one position this year, boosting them from a third-place ranking in 2016 to tie for second with J.P. Morgan this year. Renaissance Capital climbed up the leader board to No. 9 overall from 13th. Morgan Stanley drops 4 spots to 10th place. Nine firms tie for 14th place - five of which are new to the Leader board this year.
Twenty-two firms are represented in this year's results, including six that didn't appear last year: Macquarie, Aton, Avior Research, Exotix, Standard Bank Group Securities, and Unlu & Co.
The 2017 Emerging Europe, Middle East & Africa Research Team reflects the opinions of more than 680 individuals at 358 institutions that collectively manage an estimated $357 billion in emerging EMEA equities and $321 billion in emerging EMEA debt.
A total of 118 team leaders appear on this year's roster, which is limited to the top three squads in each sector, plus runners-up where applicable. The full report names 308 researchers, representing 41 entities, who met minimum-vote and other eligibility criteria.
- 07:00 am
Appian, provider of a low-code platform that can build fast and powerful enterprise applications, today announced the expansion of its management team in Europe to better meet the demands of digital transformation initiatives across the region. Joining the Appian team is Paul Maguire, Vice President of Europe; Stephane Antona, Vice President of Marketing; and Charlie Thompson, UK Regional Vice President.
"Appian continues its expansion in Europe, supplying the rising demand for Digital Transformation technology," said Matt Calkins, CEO of Appian. "Already trusted by AVIVA, Barclays, and GRDF, we look forward to reaching new customers with our expanded team."
Companies across the globe are demanding technology for their digital transformation efforts, and Appian is addressing this need through differentiated software - which can streamline operations, increase the ability to be agile, and enhance the customer experience. Over the past several years Appian has experienced growth in Europe. As Europe continues to be a top priority, Appian expects these personnel additions will help capture the opportunity in the European market. Additional background on the executives is summarized below.
- Paul Maguire, Vice President of Europe: Paul leads Appian's European operations and has substantial experience growing enterprise software companies into market leaders. Prior to Appian, for the past 20 years Paul has served in Senior Management positions at Genesys, Pegasystems, and Staffware (now Tibco). Paul is committed to helping organizations across Europe achieve success using Appian's platform.
- Charlie Thompson, Regional Vice President, UK: With a strong background in leading strategic sales initiatives, Charlie joins Appian to further expand its customer footprint within the digital transformation landscape. With decades of experience, he has held prominent positions at Curo, Pegasystems, and Fujitsu where he delivered new strategies and managed key sales efforts.
- Stephane Antona, Vice President of Marketing: With over 20 years of software experience, Stephane is focused on serving fast-growing B2B organizations and joined Appian's office in France to execute marketing initiatives aimed at business development. Prior to Appian, he held executive positions at EasyVista and VMware where he was responsible for a wide range of marketing initiatives.
"Digital transformation is a business shift that companies must pursue in order to remain competitive," notes Paul Maguire. "In order to help companies address digital challenges, Appian offers a differentiated platform. My team is focused on giving our customers the best experience possible and help them understand the ways that software can transform their business. I'm excited to lead this phenomenal team and show customers how to achieve success in an efficient, fast and powerful way."
Low-code platforms enable companies to easily create customized business applications with little or no coding. This allows for anyone in the organization to create an application that can streamline the way the business operates - increasing efficiency and lowering costs. Appian currently serves as the engine behind the digital transformation efforts of top customers such as John Lewis, MHRA, Punch Taverns and more within Europe. Appian also recently expanded its Appian Cloud footprint to include local data hosting in the UK and France, allowing customers to build and deploy enterprise applications quickly in a secure environment. Local availability is a key success driver for Appian Cloud.
- 05:00 am
TransferTo, a global B2B Cross-Border Mobile Payments Network, has partnered up with MallforAfrica (MFA), an award-winning global e-commerce platform, to offer shoppers living in Africa with direct online access to over 200 major retailers across Europe and the USA.
Over the last few years, e-commerce has been growing in popularity across Africa. According to McKinsey, it’s expected that more than US $75 billion will be generated by 2025.1 What’s more, with over 277 million registered mobile money accounts – which significantly exceeds the number of open bank accounts – mobile money has the potential to be a primary enabler of e-commerce payments in Africa.2
As an e-commerce platform, MallforAfrica, provides shoppers with online access to retailers - including eBay, Net-a-Porter, Macy’s and Ralph Lauren - that otherwise would be unavailable to them. MFA manages every aspect of the order and return cycle, offering its customers a simple, secure, and convenient solution to online shopping.
Through TransferTo’s global payments network, MallforAfrica is now able to offer its African customers to directly purchase goods online using their mobile wallet. TransferTo helps create a simple and hassle-free payments experience through one single API integration and offers a robust alternative to credit cards payments in countries where penetration of banking services is low.
Eric Barbier, CEO of TransferTo, said, "We are extremely delighted to be working with MallforAfrica to help them better cater to their customers and connect Africa with global retailer merchants. TransferTo will now be a major payments solution provider for MFA to focus on growth and expansion into other markers. With this partnership, we have an amazing opportunity to help meet the growing demand for e-commerce across Africa and offer a secure and convenient payment infrastructure.”
“With cross-border payments and e-commerce as two of the leading topics right now, we are elated to be partnering with such a dynamic company that can aid us with our payment options, allowing us to expand rapidly,” said Chris Folayan, CEO of MallforAfrica. “We always aim to make a difference in our customers’ lives all while offering a seamless experience and are continually looking for ways to enhance their experience. By partnering with TransferTo we are doing just that and know our customers are in great hands.”
The first phase of the rollout of this partnership will target online shoppers living in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda.
- 09:00 am
In a RegTech first, McObject® and GoldenSource announced today a partnership to deliver the fastest available Enterprise Data Management (EDM) designed for regulatory compliance, using McObject’s ultra-high-speed database technology, eXtremeDB®, in the GoldenSource Market Data Solution. GoldenSource is a leading independent provider of Enterprise Data Management (EDM) and Master Data Management (MDM) solutions for the securities and investment management industry, while McObject is the developer of eXtremeDB, an ultra-efficient database system for real-time and historical data analysis. The global launch today of McObject’s low latency eXtremeDB integration with GoldenSource Market Data Solution represents a leap in both performance and capability for the RegTech sector.
GoldenSource has an impressive 30-year record of providing robust data management technology to critical areas in financial institutions, and this collaboration represents a major technology advance for the increasingly-important compliance sector. Banks are under growing pressure from regulators to meet FRTB and MiFID II requirements, among others, and many are finding that their legacy infrastructure is simply unable to provide the necessary speed, agility and processing power.
Tom Stock, GoldenSource SVP Product Management, says: “Having looked at a number of specialist vendors, we chose eXtremeDB because of its speed and reliability in handling large, complex time- series data sets. Compliance has become one of the most demanding areas in every financial institution, whether it’s implementing MiFID II or getting ready for FRTB. It’s clear that ‘old-tech’ can’t cope and the way forward is to innovate, which is exactly what we’re doing with McObject. Among other things, the ‘Tick Master’ capability provided by eXtremeDB extends our established leadership in the FRTB solutions space.”
Charlie Browne, Head of Market Data & Risk Solutions at GoldenSource, adds: “Regulations such as FRTB require market risk departments to analyse over ten times more time-series market data than before, so a huge amount of time-series processing power will be needed to be compliant. In addition to speed and the ability to process large quantities of data, clients also require richer data sets for golden price generation, which is what eXtremeDB will help us do outstandingly well.”
Integrating McObject’s low latency eXtremeDB provides GoldenSource clients with the most advanced regulatory compliance and market data management capabilities that also enable more agile and sophisticated risk and finance management. More and more banks are now choosing to incorporate intra-day tick price mining and validation capabilities into their compliance systems. To get ahead of this revolution in time-series data requirements GoldenSource has invested in innovation and advanced use of technology.
Steve Graves, CEO and co-founder of McObject, commented: “This is an important collaboration for us: working with a tier-one financial services technology provider is a significant milestone for McObject. GoldenSource is the ‘go-to’ provider of essential data technology in the financial sector and integrating eXtremeDB is a major step forward for future-proofing their clients. I am confident that this partnership will be unbeatable for quality and speed of data access and management.”
Ian Hillier-Brook, CEO of MCO Europe, McObject’s Financial Markets partner, says: “This is a major opportunity to showcase eXtremeDB in the high-demand RegTech sector.”
McObject provides software and services for instant validation, consolidation, cleansing and data distribution, regardless of source or complexity.
- 03:00 am
MobiCash, a mobile financial services and technology company, today announced a spaza sector-focused mobile platform called MobiSpaza in South Africa.
Patrick Gordon Ngabonziza, MobiCash Founder and Chairman said, "As a company at the forefront of financial inclusion initiatives all across Africa, MobiCash continuously seeks innovative ways to help meet our customers' and partners' needs. Each market presents unique challenges and opportunities and finding the best fit is what sets us apart. Through MobiSpaza, inclusive business is a layer added to financial inclusion and in the end people benefit as well as businesses."
MobiSpaza creates opportunities for businesses to successfully operate in the townships by providing a sector-focused solution for products and processes adaptation driven by mobile payments and spaza banking. The system includes convenient remote and proximity payment authentication mechanisms for physical goods and value-added services including remittances. For the spaza shops, there are also in-built features designed to maximize productivity and sustained earnings through collective stock procurement or buying power, social networking and market dominance.
"We developed a B2C, or Brands to Customer, application as an added element of the MobiSpaza value offering. With MobiSpaza, brands can promote their products directly to the last mile whereby interested consumers can redeem coupons in real time at their nearest spaza shop," said Donald Mudenge, COO of MobiCash South Africa. "The ultimate goal is to make goods and services more affordable and accessible in the townships while giving businesses reason to stay and grow."
Today some shoppers would forgo spaza shopping simply because there are no rebate systems and no points to be earned. This is mostly due to the lack of "sophisticated equipment" required to run such systems at spaza level. However, MobiSpaza is also set to introduce a new flair to township shopping by enabling spazas to begin offering points-based rebates and loyalty systems.
MobiSpaza benefits South Africa township communities in areas such as human development and increased access to financial products and services. Businesses, on the other hand, now have better and improved access to these markets and forge mutually beneficial partnerships and collaborations to help serve the communities better.
MobiCash, introduced to promote financial inclusion, is the technical platform behind spaza sector-orientated MobiSpaza.
- 09:00 am
Alipay, the world's largest online and mobile payment platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group ("Ant Financial", "Ant"), today announced that it has signed a MoU with the Government of Monaco, which will enable merchants in Monaco to accept payment via Alipay, giving Chinese tourists the same convenient payment experience that they enjoy at home.
Douglas Feagin, President of International Business, Ant Financial Services Group, said, "As part of our globalization strategy, we are focused on working with local partners to bring a seamless Alipay mobile payment experience to Chinese tourists, no matter where they go. The MoU makes Monaco the 12th country in Europe to accept Alipay, and we are very excited to launch the platform in the principality in collaboration with the Government of Monaco and our banking partner BNP Paribas."
H.E Mr Serge Telle, the Prime Minister of Principality of Monaco, said, "The future is becoming cashless, and China is increasingly leading the market in mobile payment innovations. It is exciting that these frictionless payment methods are available to our Chinese visitors for the first time and we look forward to seeing this partnership come to fruition."
The MoU was agreed at a signing ceremony attended by senior dignitaries and business figures:
- Douglas Feagin, President of International Business, Ant Financial Services Group
- H.E Mr Serge Telle, the Prime Minister of Principality of Monaco
- Bernard D'Alessandri, CEO, Monaco Yacht Club
- Gilbert Schweitzer, CEO, Monacair
- Jean Luc Biamonti, CEO, Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer
- Didier Boidin, COO, Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer
- Serge Ethuin CEO, Métropole Hotel
- Xavier Rugeroni, General Manager and Régional Vice President, Fairmont Hotel, Monte Carlo
Over ten merchants in Monaco are already accepting Alipay, including Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer with 4 hotels (Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo, Hotel Hermitage Monte-Carlo, Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel and Resort, Monte-Carlo Beach), 3 spas including Thermes Marins Monte-Carlo, souvenir and gifts shops, and restaurants and bars. Alipay is also accepted by Monacair, Monaco's V.I.P. helicopter airline and official supplier to S.A.S. the Sovereign Prince of Monaco. Merchants who may onboard with the platform in the coming months include the Monaco Yacht Club, Metropole Hotel, and the Fairmont Hotel.
BNP Paribas, one of Alipay's key partners in Europe, enables merchants to accept Alipay across Monaco.
The agreement was brokered by Stelitt, which has partnered with Ant Financial in marketing Alipay in Monaco and France.
Pascal Do, CEO of Stelitt added: "Tourism accounts for 12% - 15% of GDP in Monaco and is a major driver of the economy. We are happy to connect Monaco and Alipay; making it easier for Chinese visitors to purchase souvenirs and experiences in a cashless way is a win-win."
Alipay is now accepted by more than eight million merchants across China and 120 thousand bricks-and-mortar shops overseas. Ant Financial has a number of key collaborations in Europe through its network of local acquirers including BNP Paribas, Barclays, Concardis, Ingenico, SIX, UniCredit, SIX, and Wirecard.
- 02:00 am
Twenty Thirty, a Swiss blockchain innovation company, today announces the Pillar project, which will raise money through a Token Sale on Saturday July 15 2017 to create the next-generation wallet that will hold all your assets and become your personal digital assistant powering all your devices.
The Pillar project will start as an open-source digital wallet to hold all your assets - your health records, financial records, money, ownership of things, resume, and much more. All the ownership will be on various blockchains, and you’ll have the password, replacing all the accounts you have today. Then, the personal assistant will help you find what you’re looking for and interact with many digital services automatically. As you travel, buy things, eat, consume media, use services - your personal data locker will pay your way as you go, without having to log into hundreds of apps.
The Pillar system will use its own native utility token, called the pillar (symbol: PLR). The pillar is a meta-token. As David Siegel says, “The current Token Sale craze means that tokens are going to be everywhere, used for everything from identity to energy to coffee to golf.
“The Pillar wallet manages all those tokens for you ‘automagically,’ so you only see and deal with pillars, even though there could be hundreds of tokens underneath. By launching a meta-token, we’re telling consumers they will have a single interface into their digital lives.
“We’re starting with a wallet, but we’re aiming for iOS and Android. Look at your phone - all your apps are miniature desktop apps that trap your data and keep your credit-card number on their servers. The apps don’t talk to each other, so when you want to do something, you end up using several apps.
“The Pillar system has no apps. It uses tokens, smart contracts, and a growing ecosystem of online services that let you pull the information you want, find what you’re looking for, buy what you need, manage the ownership, and interact with hundreds of other systems easily.
“Walk into a new doctor’s office - all the paperwork, test results, prescriptions, billing, and insurance are taken care of automatically, without filling out any forms. We envision all consumer devices and wearables being powered by the Pillar wallet.
“Because the data is decentralised and stored in secure blockchains, it is of little interest to hackers, providing high-level security.”
Entrepreneur Richard D Titus, a USA-based adviser said, “Pillar will be the new platform for digital natives. It’s open-source, and it replaces the Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook domination of our devices. This is a world changer.”
Pillar is staffed by a group of over 30 global volunteers, who are part of the Twenty Thirty blockchain community. As well as David Siegel, the founders include Tomer Sofinzon from Israel, Yogesh Gaikwad from India and Vitor Py from Brazil. Advisors to the project include USA-based Doc Searls, Kirt McMaster, Phil Windley and Kaliya Hamlin plus Efi Pylarinou, from Switzerland, and UK-based Anish Mohammed and Thomas Power.
The Pillar Token Sale plans to raise $25 to $50 million to build this open-source personal-data ecosystem. The Token Sale will take place over 60 hours, from 1:00 AM GMT on July 15 to 1:00 PM GMT on July 17 2017. After a successful Token Sale, the team will set up the UK’s first blockchain-only innovation centre in London. The Pillar project web site is now open.
- 09:00 am
Points (TSX:PTS) (Nasdaq:PCOM), the global leader in powering loyalty commerce, today announced that they are working with The Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank), one of the world's leading financial institutions, to power new loyalty capabilities of the Scotiabank Mobile Banking app.
Scotiabank users will now have the added ability of seamlessly tracking and accessing loyalty balances for 18 programs, including SCENE®, an industry-first for any mobile financial service provider in Canada. Customers will be able to add and access their loyalty cards across devices, through the Scotiabank Mobile Banking app and My Mobile Wallet.
Scotiabank will leverage Points Loyalty Wallet APIs, which offer loyalty programs, financial institutions and retailers a quick-to-market, white-labelled service that allows balance tracking and loyalty commerce transactions. The solution drives unprecedented value to customers who can easily engage with their favourite loyalty programs.
"It's an exciting time in the financial industry as banks continue to innovate and become more sophisticated in how they enhance the customer experience," said Rob MacLean, CEO at Points. "We're thrilled to leverage our platform and enhance the Scotiabank Mobile Banking app with multi-loyalty program functionality. This partnership speaks highly of Scotiabank's digital-first mindset and their ongoing commitment to providing mobile solutions that meet evolving customer banking and shopping needs."
Scotiabank continues to be a leader in mobile banking technology. It was the first Canadian bank to offer a mobile wallet for credit and debit cards on both Android and BlackBerry devices, and is now pioneering the loyalty integration in mobile banking in Canada.
Mr. MacLean continues: "We know that loyalty programs matter to consumers. And by leveraging our industry relationships, Scotiabank can tap into this network of engaged loyalty program members to drive app usage, engagement and retention."
Powered by Points' Loyalty Commerce Platform, the Loyalty Wallet is a set of platform services accessible via a hosted solution or APIs that allow loyalty programs, merchants and other product partners to embed balance tracking, digital barcodes for point-of-sale earn, and loyalty commerce transactions into their product offerings whether on the web or in an app.
- 08:00 am
Ingenico ePayments, the online and mobile commerce division of Ingenico Group, today announced a new payment solution designed specifically for online marketplace operators.
Online marketplaces are expected to account for almost 40% of the global online retail market by 2020, according to a study by the eCommerce Foundation and Nyenrode Business University. Reflecting the growing influence of marketplaces, the Payment Services Directive was extended in 2015, and some of the exemptions that allowed online marketplaces to operate without being regulated or supervised while providing payment services, were removed. PSD2 comes into effect in 2018, meaning online marketplace operators that sell to European consumers will need to become themselves regulated and supervised (licensed) payment service providers or seek regulatory backing from a licensed partner such as Ingenico ePayments*.
The new Ingenico Payment Solution for Marketplaces is a scalable, secure and fully PSD2-compliant solution that helps online marketplaces grow beyond their borders and simplify the transaction process for both sellers and buyers. Ingenico’s Full Service model means the company collects all funds on behalf of the marketplace operator. In this model, the marketplace operator becomes an agent of Ingenico, a licensed payment service provider, which removes the need for the marketplace operator to upgrade its company structure to become a licensed payment service provider itself. The new solution also takes care of all KYC requirements including identification and validation of sellers before any transactions are made, in full compliance with mandatory identification obligations. Additional benefits include frictionless onboarding of new sellers onto the platform, multi-seller basket and commission management.
Marketplace operators can opt to use Ingenico API for a customized implementation of the marketplace solution, or use a dedicated connector for one of the leading middleware platforms for marketplaces, such as Mirakl or Izberg.
"As online retail matures, we increasingly see the marketplace model driving growth in the space. But to sustain that growth, in particular in the EU, marketplaces will need to step up to become fully compliant with PSD2,” said Ludovic Houri, Vice President, Product at Ingenico ePayments. “Our new marketplace solution not only removes the burden of PSD2 for operators, but provides a set of features and benefits that enable marketplaces to increase efficiency, reduce complexity and scale internationally.”
