The National University of Singapore (NUS) School of Computing and the IBM Center for Blockchain Innovation (ICBI), a part of IBM Research, are collaborating to jointly develop a module on financial technology, to better equip students with essential knowledge and skill sets in this area.

Centrify, the leader in securing hybrid enterprises through the power of identity services, today announced significant enhancements to its best-in-class privileged identity management (PIM) solution to stop breaches that abuse privilege. By minimising the attack surface and controlling privileged access to the hybrid enterprise, Centrify’s new capabilities enable organisations to move from static, long-lived privilege assignments to a just-in-time model where advanced monitoring detects and alerts in real-time on the creation of backdoor accounts that make it easy to bypass a password vault.  

Securing privileged access in today’s hybrid enterprise is mandatory in achieving a mature risk posture. According to the The Forrester Wave: Privileged Identity Management, Q3 2016, 80 per cent of breaches leverage privileged credentials to gain access to the organisation. The increasingly hybrid nature of infrastructure, driven by the adoption of cloud-based workloads, is driving the need to secure privileged access across on-premises, private-cloud and public cloud infrastructure and apps with a single solution. And while most PIM solutions have traditionally focused on vaulting the credentials for shared accounts on-premises, password vaults alone do not provide the level of privileged access security required to stop the breach.

“Data breaches are happening at an alarming rate and to stop them Centrify is taking a unique approach to controlling privileged access in the hybrid enterprise that simplifies the implementation of PIM best practices and strengthens an organisation’s risk posture,” said Bill Mann, chief product officer at Centrify. “By contrast, password vaults alone are not enough, best practices require organizations add and integrate point products to the vault, which leaves gaps in security and increases risk. We’ve closed those gaps with an integrated solution that combines password vaulting with brokering of identities, MFA enforcement and just-enough privilege, all while securing remote access and monitoring all privileged sessions.”

Only a Full PIM Solution Can Stop the Breach

A recent Forrester study examined four levels of Identity Access Management (IAM) maturity. It found a direct correlation between the number of PIM best practices an organisation has implemented and the number of security incidents it encounters. Centrify’s new PIM capabilities enable these best practices, adding to Centrify’s already comprehensive set of integrated services that help organisations increase their IAM maturity level and security posture.

1. Establish Identity Assurance. Centrify ensures accountability by having users log in as themselves and attributing all activity to the individual. Its advanced host-based auditing capabilities now include process-level monitoring in addition to existing shell-based monitoring to attribute all activity to the individual instead of a shared account or alias. This new advanced monitoring adds a layer of security that is virtually impossible to spoof.
2. Limit Lateral Movement:  Centrify enables organisations to reduce the attack surface by governing privileged access and ensuring users’ privileges only apply on the approved server. Now you can require access approvals for role assignment and make them short-lived.  Centrify’s proven host-based privilege management ensures that the user’s approved privileges apply only to the target system, and cannot be used across the network on other computers. And if credentials are compromised, hackers and malware will not have the privileges that would allow them to wreak havoc within your network.
3. Institute Least Privilege: Centrify now uniquely governs access to both privileged accounts and privilege elevation via roles enabling organisations to implement true cross-platform least privilege access. Centrify lowers the risk of a security breach by granting just-in-time privilege and just-enough-privilege through temporary and time-bound access that leverages request and approval workflows. Audit trails and compliance reporting capabilities now include who has access, who approved that access and how that access was used across privileged accounts and privileged roles.
4. Monitor Privileged Use: Centrify now monitors for the creation of backdoors whose existence make privileged access to infrastructure convenient instead of secure. Centrify’s advanced monitoring capabilities detect the growing threatscape and alert in real time through SIEM integration on rogue creation of SSH keys that enable privileged access that bypasses the password vault.

According to the Forrester study, organisations that reach the highest levels on the maturity scale are 50 per cent less likely to have a breach. In addition, these organisations save 40 per cent in security costs over their less mature counterparts, and spend $5 million less in breach costs.

Ipreo, a leading global provider of market intelligence and workflow solutions to financial services and corporate professionals, announced its solution for integrating the Ipreo Investor Access platform, which allows investors to electronically submit orders directly to the sell-side syndicate banks on fixed-income new issues, with buy-side trading systems using the FIX Protocol. 

The future success of the financial industry, to a large degree, resides on the pillars: trust, transparency and client-enablement.Technology paves the way for an effective implementation of these ingredients of modern banking. Against this backdrop, Avaloq has gone into partnership with IBO to enable performance rankings in banking, and to increase trust in financial services.

Coupa Software, a leader in cloud-based spend management, today announced that it has been re-certified as 'Built for NetSuite' against the latest NetSuite release 2017.1. The company’s re-certification by NetSuite means that Coupa is able to connect to NetSuite quickly (often within one day) using pre-built NetSuite connectors. This allows customers to spend less time building and maintaining technical integrations and more time focusing on getting fast value from their spend management initiative.

“Built for NetSuite” is a NetSuite initiative to educate and consult with SuiteCloud Developer Network (SDN) Partners in accordance with the mandated goal to provide quality SuiteApps to NetSuite customers. This goal is to ensure that SDN Partner solutions meet the same level of standards for security, data privacy and overall quality as the solutions offered by NetSuite.

“We are proud that Coupa has been certified again by NetSuite,” said Rajiv Ramachandran, vice president integrations and supplier enablement at Coupa. “Coupa plus NetSuite is the perfect combination for companies looking to grow their business. Our customers rely on both of us to interoperate quickly and easily in this open cloud world.”

Coupa digitises spend transactions and helps businesses improve spend visibility, gain more control over their financial processes, improve purchasing decisions and realise savings that directly impact the bottom line.

The Coupa plus NetSuite solution digitises and controls spending across Procurement, Accounts Payable and Travel and Expense Management functions. Coupa currently has customers worldwide integrating with NetSuite solutions.

Coupa offers a full set of pre-built NetSuite connectors to pass account, vendors, exchange rate, invoice, invoice payment and expense report data between the systems.

Born in the cloud, Coupa delivers a modern spend-management platform that accelerates business by unifying processes across all the ways employees spend money. These processes cover travel and expense management, procurement, invoicing and related source-to-settle areas. Using the Coupa Open Business Network, the platform has connected more than 2 million suppliers and delivers a powerful solution for businesses committed to controlling their spend.

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. announced today that it has appointed Deborah A. Bussière as Global Chief Marketing Officer, effective May 8.

In this role, Bussière will be responsible for directing Broadridge’s global marketing functions, including execution of the company’s brand strategy, product marketing efforts, corporate communications, and digital and social media marketing. She will report to Chris Perry, President of Global Sales, Marketing and Client Solutions, Broadridge.

“Deborah is a proven leader with an extensive background in developing high-impact marketing and business development strategies,” said Perry. “As Broadridge celebrates its ten-year anniversary as a public company in 2017, Deborah is well suited to play a significant role in driving revenue, relationships and reputation as we look to future growth opportunities over the next decade.”

“I’m thrilled to join a world class team and contribute to the evolution of the Broadridge brand and the expansion of our market share,” Bussière said. “Broadridge stands apart as an industry leader, for its scale of capabilities and its breadth and depth of services, as well as, being a leading developer of innovative solutions, such as our blockchain-based proxy applications and our digital communications network.

"As Broadridge looks to grow and build transformative capabilities for the industry, we must add dynamic experienced professionals, and Deborah fits that profile.  We are truly excited to welcome her to Broadridge,” said Richard J. Daly, President and Chief Executive Officer of Broadridge.

As a global fin-tech company, Broadridge is a leading provider of technology and operations, communications, and data and analytic solutions to financial services firms and corporations. It is at the forefront of helping clients engage customers, navigate risk, optimize efficiency and accelerate growth in a rapidly changing and challenging business environment.

Bussière brings nearly two decades of financial services experience to Broadridge. Most recently, she served as interim Chief Marketing Officer for several financial technology firms including Grayscale Investments, a trusted authority on digital currency investing.

Previously, she was Chief Marketing Officer for EY, a role in which she directed strategy, vision and execution for all marketing, communications, digital and social media, public relations and client event functions across the Americas. Bussière also held several senior roles at EY including leading the Global Financial Services marketing team and acting as the Americas Financial Services Business Development Operations Leader.

Examining IT infrastructure capabilities and reconciling data will be key for meeting the new EFS requirements from the Australian regulator, according to Douglas Cheung, Regulatory Product Manager for Wolters Kluwer’s Finance, Risk & Reporting business in Asia Pacific.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has made it clear that data quality is a “key impetus” for its ongoing effort to update the reporting forms used to collect Economic and Financial Statistics (EFS) from financial institutions. The exercise aims to reduce the relatively high rates of resubmissions and revisions that accompany some forms.

Failure to meet quality thresholds will likely result in banks having to resubmit forms, or even repeat the ‘parallel runs’ that are intended to accompany the introduction of the new reporting regime. These runs present a substantial administrative burden and can take months to prepare and execute, therefore it is critical that institutions lay the groundwork early to get their output right.

Though APRA’s proposals are still in the consultation phase, Wolters Kluwer has identified a few specific ‘pressure points’ for Financial IT that the evolving data requirements are likely to create.

New data requirements

The new Statement of Financial Position form (ARF 720.0/1/2) requires the incorporation of non-residency data in the balance sheet form that was previously segregated, as well as more details on foreign currency-denominated positions. Phase 2 of the APRA exercise, which includes replacement finance forms and new forms on interest rates, will require new breakdowns of rate and cost of funds data by categories such as purpose, industry, business size and maturity.

Refinements or the addition of new categories to existing forms will be accompanied by entirely new requirements for data that may not be readily available in institutions’ current systems. Form ARF 722.0 on derivatives, applicable to institutions with gross derivative positions of A$1bn or more, includes data on derivative movements and valuations that is not part of the current reporting framework and can’t be easily sourced from typical front-end and accounting systems.

Institutions will also have to reconcile data across new forms. Form ARF 723 on margin lending for example, designed to replace the Reserve Bank of Australia’s quarterly margin lending survey, incorporates additions designed to comply with new international reporting standards that will require more detailed breakdowns of loans and the assets underlying them. These will also need to be included in and reconciled with new financing reports, such as ARF 741 and 745.

Overall, therefore, banks will be facing additional processes and possibly brushing up against system limits. In our view there a few important points to keep in mind when preparing for these changes. First, the exercise is a work in progress, and particularly in the early stages of implementation, APRA will be watching industry reaction and outcomes closely. If elements of the new requirements are unclear or seem open to interpretation due to ambiguous instructions or unique institutional scenarios, the onus is on the bank to approach the regulator for guidance.

Attempts to simply ‘guess’ what new instructions mean are likely to lead to inaccurate data submissions and additional regulatory burdens, no matter how advanced a bank’s systems or reporting abilities. Alerting APRA to unclear aspects of the EFS transition, by contrast, should provide the institution with more certainty, and, by potentially encouraging the regulator to change or refine instructions, could benefit the industry as a whole.

Gauging the gaps

It’s also key for banks to take a good, hard look at their systems to hone in on likely problem areas or limitations. Some bank infrastructure, for example, will struggle to produce data on forex exposures -- a major emphasis of the first phase of the EFS -- in anything other than the head office currency or US dollars. Affected banks may have to invest in these capabilities, or prepare for more manual work to cater for the changes.

Institutions should also examine the ‘people’ aspect of the data quality equation. Some may consider hiring more resources, or preparing for a period of extended working hours. While the transition to the new regime will primarily fall on the finance and IT departments, in some cases it will involve treasury as well.

Directors and particularly CFOs should already be aiming to ensure the EFS transformation is given appropriate budgeting and resources across the implementation period, which (given the phased rollout and parallel runs) will in effect span from now to 2020, including time for training, planning and proper project closure.

When developing approaches to the new EFS regime, institutions confronting significant reporting overhauls or system shortfalls should consider engaging the support of an outside partner with deep regulatory expertise and solutions that are built to evolve with expanding compliance requirements. This can help institutions lay a foundation for consistent data quality that will withstand future regulatory demands.

FinTex, the Chicago fintech association, today announced the launch of Currency, a fintech Center of Excellence, dedicated to collaboration, research and sharing of best practices. 

Monitise FINkit can today announce the key findings from its research into senior banking executives’ priorities, challenges, and future plans. The study, carried out by independent researchers LM Research, includes responses from 15 major UK banks and other financial institutions.

Regulation: keeping bank executives awake at night but they are at risk of missing the opportunity presented

The findings paint a conflicted picture. 60% of respondents named regulatory change and the pressure of compliance as the key challenge keeping them awake at night (with competition 53%, fraud or criminal activity 53%, and Net Promoter Scores 53% also top distractions). However, despite the regulatory pressure and the CMA’s intentions, only 27% believe Open Banking will improve their business and make it more competitive, and only 13% believe it will allow them to offer their services to customers of other banks.

Competition: banks preoccupied with peers rather than challengers

Competitive threat is overwhelmingly seen to be coming from incumbent banks (80%) rather than challengers such as Atom and Monzo or technology businesses such as Amazon or Facebook applying for banking licenses (33%).

“The confusion and contradiction is typical of an industry in the middle of a transition,” says Nick Cheetham, Managing Director of Monitise FINkit. “Some are preoccupied with their peers and believe that banking is a protected industry where the barriers to entry such as regulation and security are too high. Others are further ahead and have seen industries decimated by digital and believe that reality isn’t too far away.”

Technical prowess: banks see themselves as technical leaders but are held back by existing systems

Surprisingly, and despite continuing rhetoric around the ‘problem with legacy systems’, only one-fifth of respondents named outdated and / or failing technology as a key business challenge keeping them awake at night, with just over two-thirds (67%) seeing their bank as a technical leader. On the flip side, a third agreed that existing technology was the single biggest thing holding them back from executing on innovation, along with internal systems and processes (27%) and a risk-averse culture (20%).

Investment ROI: only half the money spent leads to services in the customers’ hands  

80% of respondents confirmed they are investing more than £25 million into ‘innovation’ every year, with over a quarter (27%) spending more than £100 million. While the majority said they are seeing a return on that investment in terms of PR or planning, only half (53%) said that the innovation team’s work is delivering new services into customers’ hands on a regular basis.

Reliance on existing talent to increase the pace of change

As expected, the majority of respondents agreed that digital transformation is critical to the future of the bank (73%), and 47% are working towards a goal of releasing new services at a faster pace in the coming two years. That said, only 7% of respondents are worrying about hiring the right talent to support that transformation.

Nick Cheetham continues: “We all know that a drive towards digital transformation is creating a real storm in the banking sector – it is all anyone can talk about. The reality though is that now there is a buy-in internally, a mandate from the board, and pressure from the regulators, most have reached transformation gridlock. It is difficult for them to see the Open Banking wood for the trees. They now need to put the right systems in place with the right talent. This will drive revenues and also result in significant cost savings if they take advantage of existing technology rather than rebuilding from scratch.”

“We know and understand that Open Banking Initiatives are well underway, it’s happening and it is intended to be in a catalyst. However banks will really miss an opportunity if they don’t start embracing its potential and combine mandatory APIs with other non-mandatory APIs from existing technology players and create new, competitive services for the modern ‘Uber’ consumer.”

Mizuho Financial Group, Mizuho Bank and IBM Japan today announced they are building a blockchain-based trade financing platform. With the platform, Mizuho is aiming to streamline trading operations and improve supply chain efficiency.

The timely and highly secure exchange of trade documents is essential for stakeholders in the supply chain ecosystem. Digitizing trade information on the blockchain can help change the way information is shared, infusing greater trust into transactions to make it easier for parties involved in the supply chain, including exporters, importers, shippers, insurance companies, port operators and port authorities, to share critical shipment data in near real-time.

Mizuho Financial Group is working with IBM Japan to ultimately conduct actual trade transactions based on Hyperledger Fabric, a blockchain framework implementation and one of the Hyperledger projects hosted by The Linux Foundation. Specifically, the project exchanges digitized letters of credit for actual trade transactions between Japan and overseas clients. As the letter of credit is digitally shared among parties including importers, exporters and their banks, it is expected to simplify the associated document creation and exchange processes, which have traditionally been time- and paper-intensive. Also, the system will enable all parties to view the latest shipment status data, which can result in reduced trade transaction and processing costs.

"We are pleased to be the market leader in Japan in powering our processes and workflows with distributed ledger technology and continue to work aggressively towards expanding our portfolio of its implementations across the group," said Daisuke Yamada, Managing Executive officer and Chief Digital Innovation Officer of Mizuho Financial Group. "The global expertise in digital technology of IBM complements our vision and has opened further avenues for us to tap the potential of distributed ledger in transforming our processes and workflows for better enterprise agility, transparency and regulatory reporting."

"The Mizuho Financial Group and Mizuho Bank's project marks an important step in using blockchain technology for actual operations in trade finance," said Masao Sanbe, Managing Director, Industry Sales, IBM Japan. "In working with global trade networks to digitize documentation and processes, IBM recognizes the potential of blockchain to help streamline financial trade services."

This first phase of the project will lead to Mizuho conducting actual trade transactions using blockchain in June 2017 advancing the trade financial platform for commercialization. Mizuho continues to utilize new technologies, like blockchain, for innovative and better financial services for customers. Mizuho worked with IBM on another blockchain pilot focused on currency settlement.

IBM launched IBM Blockchain on Bluemix for organizations that require blockchain networks that are trusted, open and ready for business.