Published
- 02:00 am
Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) today jointly announced the launch of their Road to IPO platform, a move that further strengthens Hong Kong as a technology investment hub.
Opened for all technology companies at different stages in fund-raising and the IPO process, the platform now targets technology companies that are closer to the IPO-planning stage, including those from the biomedical technology, electronics, green technology, information and communications technology, and material and precision engineering industries. These are the five key technology clusters that HKSTP focuses on developing and have the potential to transform Hong Kong into a new epicentre of technology innovation.
Joint effort to establish Hong Kong as a regional hub of technology investment
Through the Road to IPO platform, HKSTP and HKEX will organise IPO-related joint workshops to help ambitious technology companies put in place the right strategies, management team, corporate structure as well as financial and governance models as part of their IPO preparation. Besides, HKSTP will set up an enquiry hotline to cater for technology companies at all stages that need directions to IPO; HKEX will assist technology companies referred by HKSTP at appropriate times by guiding them through the IPO preparation process and relevant listing requirement. Combining their strengths, HKSTP and HKEX are convening industry organisations committed to nurturing technology companies.
“Technology is key to the future of Hong Kong and global economy while investors are key to the technology ecosystem. HKSTP is making remarkable progress in building a strong and supportive ecosystem for technology companies. We believe that our ecosystem, home to a number of high potential technology companies, can become the best destination for investors. We are glad to have HKEX to join our hands to establish such powerful end-to-end support platform to nurture technology companies towards IPO in Hong Kong, and help Hong Kong become a regional hub for technology investment.” said Albert Wong, Chief Executive Officer of HKSTP.
“While we keep the momentum going to build an optimised ecosystem for start-ups and technology companies, our ultimate aim is to make our city a magnet to investors from all over the world to support and invest in innovation.” continued Albert.
- 05:00 am
National Settlement Depository (NSD), Russia’s central securities depository, has launched a new strategic business line – Technological Services. Alexander Nam has been appointed Managing Director of this new business line.
As a central link in the financial market, NSD is focused on developing a reliable IT platform and partner programs, as well as on ensuring a high level of information security.
Alexander Nam graduated from the Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas (the National Research University) in 2004, with a degree in Economics and Management. He is also a graduate of the Russian Presidential Academy of the National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation (2006; specialty - Finance and Credit). Mr. Nam holds an MBA degree from Manchester Business School.
Mr. Nam has more than 10 years of securities market experience. From 2005-2007, he was a chief specialist of Citibank’s Depository; in 2008-2010, Mr. Nam headed up the group for client settlements and relations at Citibank’s Depository. In 2010, he joined SWIFT where he assumed the role of Director for Development. In 2015, Mr. Nam joined NSD; prior to the new appointment, he managed remote interactions with clients, and was responsible for the strategy and implementation of electronic channels.
André Stoorvogel
Director, Product Marketing – Payments at Rambus
European retailers need to maximize shopping experience as Amazon Go heads to Europe see more
- 01:00 am
With calls for a diversification and deepening of the Nigerian trade sector to offer options for varied investor tastes and boosting of the economy, Thursday, June 1 2017 witnessed the launch of a Digital Cloud-hosted Trade Solution for the Nigerian Market called Misys Fusion Banking Trade Innovation Software.
These become pertinent as some identified drivers of the revolution in global trade finance are identified as technological innovation, switches in corporate behaviour, regulatory changes and of course, accelerating market competition.
Apart from the innovative solution optimising banks’ trade operations to drive growth in domestic and cross-border trade and supply chain finance, Misys Fusion’s adaptability to the working capital needs of individual buyers and suppliers will allow clients surpass competition in the area of service quality delivery and relevant and timely product delivery, while providing a single management view of their entire trade finance business.
Other benefits of the solution include reduced operational costs, Elimination of operational risks and customer service excellence with transactions easily and efficiently routed at each stage of the transaction lifecycle. Developers of the platform offered further assurances in an era of increasing concerns of safety and online intrusions. According to them, beyond its promise of global visibility, and risk oversight across financial institutions’ entire trade finance business, there will be more attention on risk management.
Commenting about the solution, Carlos Teixera, Head of Corporate Banking within Global Solutions Consulting, Middle East and Africa at Misys said:
“Centralized trade operations combined with credit risk limit setting and watchlist integration also means this is an effective, singular and end-to-end platform for risk management. The system is remarkably flexible and can be deployed/integrated in unison with the Fusion’Banking Corporate Channels trade portal solution, or any other in-house or third party system already being run by the financial institution. Misys’ long range experience in deploying financial solutions across diverse markets guarantees a proven implementation approach that includes off-the-shelf business workflows for trade, reflecting 20 years of successful trade services implementations.”
This solution is powered by Interswitch’s Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform, which delivers high-end technology infrastructure - servers, storage, network and operating systems - as an on-demand service. Interswitch has built a suite of cloud services and offerings, which are designed to help businesses focus on delivering innovative products and services to their customers.
Also commenting on the solution, Interswitch’s Chief Information Officer, Babafemi Ogungbamila added that:
“Businesses can leverage our over a decade and half of experience delivering infrastructure and cloud-based services. Businesses can also leverage our great relationships with the very best technology vendors in the world, so essentially, this is Interswitch and Misys coming together to deliver a compact trade banking solution hosted in the cloud, for Nigerian banks to take advantage of.”
- 07:00 am
Denver-based cross-border payments company bridge21 just announced wider US banking support.
bridge21’s CEO, Will Madden, shared: “Last week we consistently offered 14% better than mid-market rates for large amounts. That’s incredible. No one else does that.”
Some of the new banking support includes Bank of America, Citibank, Chase, Fidelity, Navy Federal Credit Union, PNC Bank, SunTrust Bank, TD Bank, US Bank, USAA, Wells Fargo and many more.
Since its launch of the US-to-Mexico corridor, bridge21 integrated with BitGo Instant to expedite turnaround time on transactions. The bridge21 site can also be viewed in English or Spanish. Those interested in seeing the Bridge Rate in action can check out popular remittance rate listing sites like CompareRemit.com to see how bridge21 customers frequently get a much better deal.
On average, bridge21 provides a savings of about 5% over the competition. This means a customer sending $500 a week could save around $1,450 a year using bridge21, and if they wait for better-than-market rates, it can be a lot more. It’s worth a few minutes of time to sign up at bridge21.io if you send money to Mexico.
As bridge21 recognizes that not everyone is in a position to send funds from the US to Mexico, this emerging cross-border payments company recently launched an Ambassadors Program to incentivize individuals with friends and colleagues sending money from the US to Mexico to get in on the top rates. Ambassadors are rewarded with a gift of $50 USD for every new paying referred customer who sends any number of transactions equal to $200 or more through the platform.
With the mission of Money without Borders, bridge21 services anyone with a US bank account who would like to send money to a recipient with a Mexican bank account. The Bridge Rate is calculated by the price of Bitcoin in the sending and receiving countries.
- 08:00 am
RiskRecon, a SaaS provider of objective, vendor security assessments and insights, today announced it has completed a $12 million Series A financing round led by Dell Technologies Capital with additional participation from F-Prime Capital Partners and existing investor General Catalyst.
With its proprietary data gathering technology, RiskRecon offers a unique depth, transparency and accuracy unavailable from security ratings services and vendor questionnaires. RiskRecon’s solution discovers a third-party vendor’s entire public IT footprint and produces actionable security assessments. RiskRecon provides not just summary information but also all supporting evidence, remediation priorities and vendor collaboration so that you can truly scale your third-party risk program. Moreover, RiskRecon’s continuous gathering of detailed IT and security data also enables clients to rapidly pinpoint third-party vendor exposure to new and emergent vulnerabilities such as Apache Struts.
“Methods for measuring and controlling third-party risk no longer address the risk realities of the increasingly interconnected organization. They often rely entirely on vendor attestation or stale databases and secondary threat intelligence measurements that do not provide an objective or accurate snapshot of an organization’s security performance,” said Kelly White, CEO of RiskRecon. “By providing timely, objective information to complement the vendor attestation process, we enable clients to better allocate resources and ensure vendor buy-in to corrective actions.”
Through the SaaS portal, RiskRecon clients continuously monitor vendor security performance across 50 unique security criteria that map directly to industry-recognized security measurement standards and frameworks. Unlike security ratings companies, RiskRecon doesn’t settle for assessing companies from a distance, re-swizzling distant banter in chatrooms and buying data from other companies. RiskRecon believes that the best measures of security performance are those that are directly observed about a company’s infrastructure and attack surface area.
“Globalization, outsourcing and cloud computing have dramatically expanded the cybersecurity attack surface of any G2000 enterprise beyond the enterprise’s traditional IT borders to the borders of its partners and vendors. A robust cybersecurity program should therefore consider the security measures and standards of these third parties,” said Deepak Jeevankumar, Managing Director of Dell Technologies Capital. “RiskRecon helps CISOs, boards of directors and security analysts to continuously evaluate the cyber-risk of the ever-changing IT environments of relevant third parties and provide actionable recommendations to safeguard those extended borders.”
The Series A funding also included existing private investors including Paul Sagan, former CEO of Akamai.
"Under regulatory scrutiny and rapid growth of third parties holding critical data, today’s security risk assessment process is characterized by large backlogs and slow, inaccurate and inefficient processes," said Gaurav Tuli, principal at F-Prime Capital Partners. "RiskRecon offers data-driven automation of vendor assessment to bring greater clarity and efficiency to the third-party assessment process.”
- 05:00 am
Whether you’re heading out for dinner or doing your weekly shopping, your Android phone is all you need to bring with you when you walk out the door. Starting now, Android Pay is available in Taiwan.
You’ll be able to use Android Pay anywhere contactless payments are accepted, including your favorite shops like PX Mart, Carrefour, Watsons, and more. Simply unlock your phone and hold it to the payment terminal until you see a “check.” It’s that easy. And businesses across that already have contactless terminals don't need to do anything else to start accepting Android Pay in their stores.
Surfing your favourite mobile sites and apps? Android Pay lets you speed through checkout at places like Watsons, CrazyMike, and more. You can also save your HappyGo cards to Android Pay, and rack up points while you shop.
To start using Android Pay, just download the Android Pay app on Google Play and add an eligible Visa or MasterCard credit card from one of our supported banks, including CTBC and First Bank. Don’t see your bank yet? Stay tuned. We’re working to partner with more banks and cards all the time.
Once you’ve added an eligible card, you’re ready to pay with your phone. Android Pay keeps a list of your latest transactions right in the app, so you can easily keep track of your purchases.
And when you use Android Pay in stores, your actual card number isn’t shared. Instead, Android Pay sends a virtual account number to represent your account info—so your actual card details stay safe. Plus, you’ll still get all the benefits and protections you’re used to with your bank.
If you’re a merchant or a developer, we've teamed up with many leading payment platforms, processors, and technology providers to make it even easier to accept Android Pay. Visit the Android Pay API developer site to learn more.
- 04:00 am
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the premier post-trade market infrastructure for the global financial services industry, today announced the appointment of Matthew Stauffer as Managing Director and head of Institutional Trade Processing, effective from June 30, 2017. In this role, Mr. Stauffer will be responsible for integrating DTCC’s middle office trade processing solutions, including the Omgeo suite of solutions, Trade Support Services (TSS) and the GMEI Utility, as well as leading new product development. He will report to Timothy Keady, Managing Director and Head of DTCC Solutions.
Mr. Stauffer previously served as CEO of Clarient Global, LLC, a partnership DTCC launched in 2014 with six founder banks to provide centralized services for all client data and documents needed to satisfy internal Know Your Customer (KYC) broader related regulatory requirements. DTCC sold the business to Thomson Reuters earlier this year. Prior to that, Mr. Stauffer was the Managing Director of Strategy & Business Development and has held senior roles within DTCC’s Operations, Technology and Product organizations and is a member of the firm’s Operating Committee. Before joining DTCC, Mr. Stauffer was a management consultant in Accenture’s Financial Services practice.
Mr. Keady said, “Matt has deep experience in middle office processing and a firm understanding of the challenges facing many firms today. His knowledge of the marketplace and client needs will enable him to bring new insights to product development and opportunities for integrating our products and services to drive greater efficiencies in trade processing.”
Mr. Stauffer said, “I am excited to take on this role as the industry continues to look to DTCC for greater support. DTCC’s decades of experience in reducing risk, driving efficiencies and protecting the marketplace positions us to play a larger role supporting our clients during this period of market transformation.”
- 08:00 am
AYA Bank (Ayeyarwady Bank) has selected the Misys FusionBanking suite to support a transformative project which will overhaul its core banking system, digitalise operations and improve overall efficiency throughout the organisation.
U Zaw Zaw, Chairman, AYA Bank said, “It’s thrilling to see more of our vision for AYA Bank come to life in Myanmar. In addition to providing existing customers with a seamless, best-in-class experience, this transformation will drive rapid business and economic growth in Myanmar by increasing banking penetration and the availability of reliable, secure banking services to the nation’s large underbanked population. With Misys, this transformation will mean we can deliver excellence and pursue growth in our rapidly changing country while continuing to lead from the front. These financial services not only support the Myanmar government’s national goals of inclusive economic growth, but also connect Myanmar to global commerce.”
AYA Bank has always been at the forefront in providing modern retail banking services and products and in just seven years the bank has grown to become one of the top three private banks in Myanmar. Using the Misys platform, the bank will consolidate and streamline workflow as well as digitalising all manual and non-digital processes to better service its customers across retail and corporate banking.
The modern digital Misys platform will help improve the services and products available, as well as protecting customer information and data integrity. AYA Bank’s customers will enjoy faster access to more information and will have the option to perform a wider range of transactions at the click of a button through new online and mobile banking solutions. This in turn will enable the bank to improve customer engagement and accelerate customer acquisition through functions such as digital on-boarding.
“As Myanmar’s banks modernise to keep pace with the disruption that’s driving the economy forward, digitalisation can be a catalyst for much broader change across the nation,” said Nadeem Syed, CEO, Misys. “With fierce competition brewing in Myanmar’s financial services sector, we are confident that we can help AYA Bank leapfrog developed market banking challenges to modernise faster and more efficiently. This will help to have a significant impact in including more people into Myanmar’s financial system and making a cashless society a reality for all.”
This transformation will also enable AYA Bank to offer internal stakeholders a better service. This includes improving process efficiency and minimising operational risk, providing accurate and reliable reporting, supporting decision-making and improving the bank’s speed-to-market in launching new products and services in branches across the country.
The Misys partnership-driven approach and commitment to remain closely engaged with AYA Bank will also be beneficial over the longer term as AYA Bank uses the integrated FusionBanking solution suite to anticipate future needs, deliver growth and plan regional expansion that stretches beyond Myanmar’s borders.
Expansion of the Misys footprint in Myanmar is testament to the fast transformation taking place in the region as banks strive to modernise and keep one step ahead of the technological advancements changing their customers’ lives. Big Byte International, a Misys InFusion partner, has been instrumental in supporting the Misys journey in Myanmar and Asia Pacific, and is now investing in creating regulatory framework tools for Myanmar using the Misys FusionFabric architecture, in addition to building a team of local domain experts to support Misys in the region.
- 02:00 am
Paysafe, a leading global payments provider, announces it has teamed with Google to be one of the first Payment Service Providers (PSP) to launch in-app Android Pay capabilities to its merchants in Canada.
Android Pay offers a fast, simple and secure way for shoppers to use their Android phones with the use of a digital card for purchases in-app and in-store without pulling out a physical wallet.
Android Pay was built as an open platform for developers to add to mobile commerce apps. Paysafe will offer its Canadian merchants the ability to process in-app payments using Android Pay by providing them with required Application Programming interfaces (API) and a Software Development Kit (SDK) to support this function.
Google’s VP of Payments, Pali Bhat commented: “We’re excited to bring the simplicity and security of mobile payments to Android users in Canada with the help of companies like Paysafe. Starting today, Paysafe’s Canadian merchants will be able to provide their shoppers with the option of checking out with Android Pay through their mobile apps.”
