Published
- 02:00 am
Mobey Forum, the global industry association empowering banks and other financial institutions to lead in the future of digital financial services, today unveils three new workgroups, each focused on a critical aspect of the global digital financial services market.
The first objective of the Open Banking workgroup is to help banks explore opportunities presented by the new Payment Services Directive, PSD2, together with open banking standards like the Open Financial Exchange (OFX). The group will focus on how banks can capitalise on these regulations to establish a new relationship model with their customers based on the open banking environment. The group aims to establish best practice in defining an open banking strategy by exploring value-added services and their contribution to banks revenues.
The group is co-chaired by Oscar Sala, VP Product Strategy, Strands, and Jordi Guaus, Head of Digital Marketing, CaixaBank.
Virtual Currencies Workgroup
The Virtual Currencies workgroup will scrutinise the 5th Anti Money Laundering (AML) Directive which will include clear explanations of how virtual currencies are defined together with how blockchain based payment companies will become ‘obligated entities’ under the terms of the directive. The workgroup will analyse questions such as: What are the strengths, weaknesses opportunities and threats that virtual currencies present? How should the new AML regulation be manifested in action? How is the risk picture changing for banks?
The group is co-chaired by Hans Henrik Hoffmeyer, Senior Vice President, Nets Group and Peter Stephens, Head of Blockchain, UBS.
Strong Authentication in M-Commerce Workgroup
Addressing issues and authentication solutions in m-commerce will be the principal focus of this workgroup, which will pay particular attention to remote consumer-to-business payment transactions initiated via the mobile device. Both app and browser based authentication solutions will be explored, with a view to creating a joint Mobey Forum and Aite Group research report.
The group is co-chaired by Ron Van Wezel, Senior Analyst, Aite Group, Roney Castro, Principal Advisor, UL and Jacob Ost Hansen, Nordea.
“Mobey Forum’s central objective has always been to enable banks and financial institutions to leverage new technologies and business models to reinforce their leadership in financial services,” comments Maikki Frisk, Executive Director, Mobey Forum. “Digitalisation is changing the world at an unprecedented rate; there is barely an area of our lives that is unaffected. Similarly, a huge proportion of our day to day activities have their foundations in commerce. This means two things: Firstly, that banks and financial institutions have a vital role to play in helping everyone that inhabits the digital world to harness its power to enrich their lives. Secondly, as banks respond to digitalisation, they have a tremendous opportunity to establish new, deeper relationships with customers, generating innovative new services and capitalising on the revenues these will generate. For this to happen, however, they must be ahead of the curve. Our three new workgroups zero in on some of the most influential developments in banking and fintech today. I can’t wait to be part of the discussions.”
Mobey Forum’s workgroups provide a platform for strategic discussion and collaboration on a particular area of interest for members. The groups aim to prevent stakeholders from developing ‘tunnel vision’ by bringing together vendors, banks, financial institutions and other service providers to network, share experiences and exchange views in a commercially neutral environment.
The three new workgroups will join Mobey Forum’s popular Bank Disruption workgroup which will continue its wide-ranging work into the second half of 2017 and beyond. All groups will meet this week at Mobey Forum’s second quarterly member meeting of the year, kindly hosted by Inside Secure in Edinburgh, Scotland.
- 04:00 am
Bancontact is opening up its popular payment app to users of Tricount, an app that makes it easy for friends to share the bill between themselves.
Nowhere else is the mobile revolution so visible as it is in fintech (financial technology). Companies in this sector are implementing new technologies to develop cutting-edge financial products. A good example of this is the Bancontact app, which has set a new trend for payments since it was launched in May 2014 and has now become an established value in the industry. Last year, 3.5 million transactions were carried out using the Bancontact app. More than 20,000 retailers and other merchants already accept this Bancontact payment method.
Adding to the strength of its own app, Bancontact is also building on its collaboration with other fintech companies, such as Tricount, POM and Doccle. “Through these partnerships, both parties strengthen each other,” explains Bancontact CEO Kim Van Esbroeck. “Start-up fintechs are able to draw on the considerable coverage and expertise of Bancontact. Similarly we, as market leaders, are able to keep a close eye on things when it comes to payment innovations.”
The latest innovation in this sequence comes from Tricount, an app that enables people to share costs amongst themselves (peer-to-peer). After a family weekend in the Ardennes or a meal out with friends, the app calculates who has to pay what to whom. The real added value hidden in Tricount is the fact that you can also pay the bill immediately in the app. No fiddling around making transfers or handing over cash afterwards. Instead, everything is settled right away in Tricount in conjunction with the Bancontact app. “This makes Tricount the first peer-to-peer app to incorporate the Bancontact payment method,” says Kim Van Esbroeck.
The Bancontact app is opened automatically via the payment button in Tricount: the person making the payment scans the receiver’s QR code, enters their PIN code and the reimbursement is made. In addition to Tricount, Bancontact also works with Doccle and POM. Doccle is the first personal digital platform that enables you to store your bills simply and securely and then pay them using the Bancontact app. POM also simplifies your personal administration significantly: you can use it to process all your digital and paper invoices and bills - and then use the Bancontact app to pay them.
RELIABLE PAYMENTS
Fintech Belgium, the biggest platform for fintech companies in Belgium, is delighted about the way Bancontact and the fintechs are working together. “They are demonstrating how established and new businesses in the sector can give each other a hand,” says Xavier De Pauw, President of Fintech Belgium.
The same sentiment is echoed at Tricount. “It is very encouraging to see that young start-ups are able to create partnerships with more established financial institutions,” say Tricount founders, Jonathan Fallon and Guillebert de Dorlodot.
According to Bancontact CEO Kim Van Esbroeck, it’s a win-win situation. “Start-up fintechs often grab the headlines with their dazzling innovations,” continues Van Esbroeck. “But in the end, what they are really looking for is a reliable payment system that brings a lot of consumers on board and keep them there. That’s when they come and find us. A watertight payment system is not built in a day - and what’s more, the smaller players simply don’t have the same scope and brand recognition as Bancontact. When it comes to payments, Bancontact remains the go-to provider. And in terms of innovation, we continue to lead the way.”
- 04:00 am
OXIAL, the new generation Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) software solutions provider headquartered in Switzerland, and Global Data Sentinel (GDS), a New York-based leading cyber security solutions provider for information protection and data security and Mice360, a cybersecurity think tank and accelerator based in Washington, DC, have signed an agreement to jointly develop the next-generation of GRC solutions for the public and private sector markets.
The new solution will bring together real-time analytics and automation from OXIAL’s full-featured GRC suite and GDS’ cybersecurity and information protection capabilities to deliver an end to end solution for data privacy (GDPR) and cybersecurity that incorporates best-practice standards, enterprise rights management, and numerous regulatory frameworks across multiple risk scenarios (including AML/KYC, fraud, financial, IT, process and business).
“The recent introduction of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation has brought about the convergence of enterprise policies and technology,” said Eric Berdeaux, CEO and founder of OXIAL. “By partnering with GDS we are bringing together the best-of-breed solutions to solve the increasingly overlapping needs of GRC and cybersecurity. From GDPR in the European Union, to other regulatory frameworks elsewhere in the world, such as the New York State Department for Financial Services (NYDFS) legislation that oversees the majority of U.S. banking and financial services firms, including Wall Street, we’re developing solutions that solve the needs of our customers and bring them peace of mind when it comes to managing complex organisational and regulatory mandates” he added.
“We are extremely pleased to be partnering with the team at OXIAL, who have demonstrated their ability to deliver industry-leading GRC software solutions for customers in highly regulated markets such as banking, insurance, healthcare, and the public sector,” said John-Philip Galinski, CEO and founder of Global Data Sentinel. “With the exponential growth of data breaches from cyberattacks and internal threats, and the resulting legislation we’re seeing as a result, including the precedent of monetary enforcements from HIPAA and others in the U.S., it is logical that organisations will be eager to work with solutions providers that integrate GRC with cybersecurity and mitigate the risk up-front. Recent legislation has changed the needs of the market considerably, and we believe we have a tremendous partner in OXIAL to help meet the demand we are seeing.”
“The current market regulations implemented in Europe and the new cybersecurity initiatives announced by the White House, will require near real time assessment, reporting and compliance. The uniqueness of GDS’ data security solution combined with Oxial’s powerful reporting platform, allows the C-suite to ascertain that they are maintaining a complete level of compliance needed, with a powerful combination not previously available to the market”, said Shahal Khan, Partner of Mice360, Inc.
- 03:00 am
FlexTrade Systems (@FlexTrade), a global leader in multi-asset execution and order management systems, today announced it has been chosen as the Best Liquidity Aggregation Platform for FX at this year’s Profit & Loss Readers’ Choice Awards, also known as the FoXys, which was recently held in New York.
"It is an honor to be recognized by the readers of Profit & Loss as this year's Best Liquidity Aggregation Platform," said David Ullrich, Senior Vice President, FX Execution Strategies at FlexTrade. "With the FX market becoming more decentralized, liquidity aggregation is mission critical for efficient trade execution."
Now in its 10th year, the Profit & Loss Readers’ Choice Awards are voted for by the magazine's subscribers, and reflects their choice of the best service providers and market makers operating in FX.
Continued Ullrich: "As more complex interactions between the buy side and the sell side become standard, FlexTrade's FX solutions help deliver real, best execution by offering a dynamic array of liquidity aggregation based on user criteria and pre-trade TCA analysis."
Liquidity aggregation is available in all of FlexTrade’s FX trading solutions, which includes MaxxTrader, a complete turnkey, white label front-end system; FlexFX, the award-winning FX execution management system for trading and risk management; and FlexFX OMS, a global order management system to handle the full order life cycle from order generation and execution of trades to allocations and confirms.
- 06:00 am
Sberbank has become the first pubic joint stock company to propose its shareholders to use the e-voting technology developed by National Settlement Depository (NSD), Russia’s central securities depository. 99 shareholders of Sberbank used the option to receive the materials of the shareholders meeting remotely and to vote online at the AGM held on 26 May. In total, 806 shareholders representing 33.3% votes of the total number of voting shares participated in the AGM electronically (including those who used the e-proxy voting technology).
Maria Krasnova, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board, NSD, said: “The e-voting technology was successfully launched at the meeting of shareholders of Sberbank, which confirmed the convenience and reliability of the new platform. We will be inviting all issuers to use the technology. As any other fundamentally new technology, e-voting will require some time to let people know about it, to trust it and to get used to it. However, even now we can see that electronic voting is becoming a part of the required corporate practices of the leading Russian companies.”
Users of the service noted the convenience of the new technology. Access to the e-voting platform is provided via the Unified Authorization and Authentication System (UAAS) which is available on the State Services Portal. Sberbank shareholders could also use the e-voting service via one-time login and password received from JSC STATUS, Sberbank's registrar. The platform is bilingual: the interface, AGM materials, agenda items put to the vote were available in both Russian and English. This encourages more shareholders to participate in meetings by attracting the foreign audience.
Ms. Krasnova added: “The strategic task of NSD is to create high-tech services for our clients. E-voting is a revolutionary technology which allows a greater number of shareholders (including foreign ones) to take part in meetings, provides for increased transparency of Russian companies’ corporate governance and, consequently, raises the attractiveness of Russian assets.”
About the e-voting platform
Implementing the e-voting service in the Russian market became possible once Federal Law No. 210-FZ was adopted; it established the right of shareholders to use this type of voting at shareholders meetings as of 1 July 2016. Issuers (such as Sberbank) which added the e-voting option for their shareholders to their charters are entitled to propose such service.
The e-voting platform provides shareholders with free access to the e-voting website.
The service has the following functionality:
· An opportunity to register and vote electronically1 (by filling out an electronic ballot at www.e-vote.ru);
· An opportunity to connect to the video or text broadcasting (depending on the issuer’s choice);
· An access to agenda items and materials of the meeting;
· Online communications with the issuers during the meeting.
The platform is accessible anywhere in the world; no special technical means are required to vote. The new service is available for all categories of shareholders regardless of where their securities are held – in the register or with a depository. If an investor owns shares of a few companies, he/she may vote via the platform’s services without bearing additional costs. The e-voting platform is a turnkey solution which can be integrated into issuers’ and registrars’ computer systems.
When using the e-voting platform, an issuer and its audit committee can receive data about shareholders’ votes in the online mode. To calculate votes and adopt resolutions, the issuer can timely register the votes of shareholders who attended the meeting and the votes submitted via the e-voting system. The document interchange between issuers, registrars, and the CSD will be carried out on the basis of ISO international formats implemented by NSD as part of corporate action reform. It provides for a straight through process of automation across all stages of meetings.
This platform will be convenient for different issuers: from major companies with tens and hundreds of thousands of shareholders to small issuers.
The use of the e-voting service by issuers becomes very important if shareholders live in different Russian regions and abroad.
- 05:00 am
RSRCHXchange, the MiFID II research aggregator and marketplace for institutional research, today announces the expansion of their partnership with Substantive Research, curator of macroeconomic investment research. This latest integration phase means that Substantive ResearchMatch Curations are now integrated into the RSRCHX platform, enabling clients to seamlessly move from research curation to purchasing subscriptions and reports.
The Substantive ResearchMatch Curation service highlights must-read publications by banks and independent providers on a given theme, and hunts for research outside a portfolio manager's core providers that matches their current needs and preferences. ResearchMatch Curation combines technology and human expertise to curate at an individual portfolio manager level, ensuring there is a match by style and process as well as relevance.
The collaboration will now enable Substantive’s fund management customers to quickly and easily purchase the research content best suited to them via one exclusive, single connection to the RSRCHX platform. Meanwhile RSRCHX users who opt into ResearchMatch will benefit from content curation, simplifying the discovery of research that matches their investment style and needs.
Mike Carrodus, Founder and CEO at Substantive Research said: “The research needs of each portfolio manager vary dramatically depending on their personal preferences and expertise. Our ResearchMatch Curation service takes them to relevant and high quality research whilst also matching by process and style. Working with RSRCHXchange is a great way to give them direct access to purchase that research.”
Vicky Sanders, Co-CEO, RSRCHXchange, commented: “With just seven months left before MiFID II unbundling comes into effect, clients are struggling with research pricing and ensuring that they subscribe to the right providers in time for the deadline next year. Our collaboration with Substantive provides a solution to these issues.”
Jeremy Davies, Co-CEO, RSRCHXchange, added: “This latest development in our partnership programme further improves the user experience and will enable their customers to procure their research via RSRCHX. Our network continues to grow, with some of the largest global asset managers and banks joining over 1,000 asset managers already on the RSRCHX platform and we expect to accelerate further client onboarding as we approach the January 2018 MiFID II deadline.”
- 08:00 am
Pyramid Analytics, a leading global provider of enterprise business intelligence (BI) software, announced today it has been recognized as an overall leader in Customer Experience and Vendor Credibility by Dresner Advisory Services’ flagship BI market report, the 2017 Wisdom of Crowds Business Intelligence Market Study. This is the third consecutive year the company has earned placement in the report.
Pyramid earned improvement in every category, as compared with 2016 results. These categories include sales, value, product, technical support, consulting and integrity. The company also received a perfect recommend score from its customers.
“We are pleased to be consistently recognized as a leader in one of the most comprehensive industry reports on business intelligence,” said Omri Kohl, Pyramid Analytics co-founder and CEO. “Being an overall leader reflects our strong commitment to our customers, who rely on our platform to help them make critical, data-driven decisions using a collaborative, agile and secure BI system they can trust.”
Pyramid Analytics also was recognized for its collaborative BI capabilities and governed data discovery features in the 2017 Collective Insights Market Study from Dresner Advisory Services.
In the 2017 Wisdom of Crowds Business Intelligence Market Study, Pyramid Analytics was ranked against 26 vendors based on Dresner’s trademark 33-criteria evaluation model that compares each vendor’s performance to their previous year’s performance and to the average for all vendors
“Businesses use the Wisdom of Crowds Business Intelligence Market Study, now in its eighth year, as an objective source of industry research to understand how their peers leverage and invest in BI and related technologies,” said Howard Dresner, founder and chief research officer of Dresner Advisory Services. “We congratulate Pyramid Analytics once again for their strong performance in this year’s study.”
- 01:00 am
Kodak Alaris Information Management has launched a series of promotions designed to reward end-users who purchase selected models from its award-winning scanner range. The cashback and trade-in offers are valid until December 31.
Anyone in the market for a Kodak Scanmate i1150 Scanner will get £50 cashback while i2620 Scanner buyers who trade-in a desktop or embedded scanner from any brand, will receive a £200 reward.
Compact, quick and whisper-quiet, with an intuitive interface and ample intelligence, the ScanMate i1150 is capable of handling a wide variety of office processes. The i2620 Scanner combines simple operation and time-saving features in a remarkably small and powerful package. Both models feature Kodak Alaris’ Smart Touch technology, enabling users to perform up to nine different scanning tasks with the push of a button - including creating PDFs, attaching documents to emails, or sending scanned files to cloud services.
Kodak Alaris has launched a dedicated website for this latest customer promotion which also comes with a 90-day satisfaction guarantee. Any customer who purchases a qualifying product during the promotional dates and who for any reason is not fully satisfied with the product, may claim a full refund* up to 90 days after registering their purchase.
- 05:00 am
Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO), the world leader in digital security, partners with the East Timor government to start issuing state-of-the-art electronic passports (ePassports) to its citizens. The complete solution comprises the ICAO-compliant ePassports and a suite of capabilities such as easy enrollment, biometric data capture, de-duplication of redundant biometric information, disaster and data recovery, as well as a full turnkey public key infrastructure and secure issuance of the document. All these features work together to ensure increased security and protection of personal data. Gemalto and its local partner, Visi Mitra Unipessoal Lda, provide support and maintenance services. KOMSCO has been subcontracted to manufacture the passport booklet.
East Timor, also known as The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia and an independent nation since 2002. The local government is investing in modernization to enhance services to its citizens. With Gemalto's end-to-end solution, authorities can register ePassport applicants, capture their fingerprints at selected offices and embassies, and issue travel documents using the latest digital security technologies. The ePassports are made of polycarbonate datapages that are embedded with a secure contactless microprocessor and eTravel software for high-end security and durability. Citizens can enjoy a speedy application process and issuance as well as seamless border crossing.
"We now have the capability to issue a more secure ICAO-compliant ePassport so that our citizens can avoid any inconvenience at the borders," said Ivo Valente, the Minister of Justice of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste. "Gemalto's one-stop solution allows us to migrate to the latest electronic travel documents with ease and confidence. It works with all major printers, and for both centralized and decentralized issuance. East Timor citizens can now travel anywhere around the world, with unprecedented levels of security and privacy. "
"Gemalto strongly supports the ICAO's Traveler Identification Program (TRIP). Our solution is designed with multiple layers of security, from data collection and booklet production to ePassport issuance and use at the borders," said Ng Fook-Seng, Senior Vice President Government Programs, Asia, Gemalto. "As a leading supplier of over 30 national ePassport solutions worldwide, and experts of both documents and related solutions, Gemalto is please to support East Timor to jump on to the next-generation electronic passports and secure the entire chain of trust for a safer travel experience."
- 07:00 am
The next step of the partnership, which is in its induction stage, will be the completion of pilot tests of Zooz’s globally distributed architecture by select PayU customers. The results of these tests and their impact on cross border payments and processes are expected later this year.
PayU CCO Matthias Setzer said, “High growth markets make up 85 percent of the world’s population, and ambitious merchants are increasingly attracted to the business opportunities this presents. However, they are held back by cumbersome cross-border payment infrastructure and processes. That’s why we are delighted to partner with Zooz, using its unique payments technology to help us solve some of the difficulties facing merchants.
“This announcement is another example of PayU seeking the best international partnerships to build on our heritage in payments and deliver innovations that help merchants scale in high growth markets.”
Zooz CEO Oren Levy stated, “With its impressive track record in high growth markets, PayU is clearly aware of the opportunities and barriers faced by international merchants. The combination of PayU’s expertise and customer base with Zooz’s advanced technology platform is a natural fit, and we look forward to helping merchants gain access to new global markets and opportunities.”
