Published
- 07:00 am
Today, Plaid and Dwolla announced a new partnership to offer a fully tokenized ACH payment integration. The partnership makes it possible to tokenize account and routing numbers and authenticate user bank accounts through Plaid and start accepting Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments in minutes with Dwolla’s ACH API.
Plaid, the technology company whose suite of APIs powers many of the most innovative and fastest-growing companies in financial services, serves as the authentication gateway and data provider while Dwolla, a SaaS platform that moves billions of dollars for developers and businesses of all sizes, is the ACH provider and facilitates the movement of funds via its Access API. The new partnership tokenizes the sensitive financial information from transactions to significantly limit exposure of the data.
“We’re at an inflection point in the world of ACH payments,” said Zach Perret, CEO and co-founder of Plaid. “This partnership brings Dwolla and Plaid together to simplify the developer experience, increase data availability for easier approvals, and increase security for consumers via account number tokenization. The strength of security in card networks is based on tokenization being table stakes, which we hope becomes more common throughout the industry, and we’re working to make a reality with partnerships like this one.”
“Dwolla has specialized in making bank transfers more accessible and secure for years. During that time, Plaid focused on innovating in the bank authentication and consumer data space,” said Ben Milne, CEO of Dwolla. “The partnership demonstrates how fintech companies can come together to introduce easier and safer ways to access the nation’s banking infrastructure.”
The ACH network moves more than $41 trillion each year. To send funds to another bank account, businesses and consumers must authenticate the account. This requires the account owner to provide sensitive bank information to a third-party and validate via micro-deposits, which can take several days to verify, or via an instant account authentication by companies like Plaid. Passing and storing this bank transfer information between third-party platforms and their end users has been traditionally facilitated through best practices by providers like Dwolla and Plaid; however, this new collaboration tokenizes this authentication and transaction data, removing the need for third-party platforms to capture any sensitive banking data from their consumers.
"Tokenizing this data is a huge win for consumers and a boon for companies looking to reduce their information security risk." said Adam Dell, CEO of Clarity Money, a joint customer of Dwolla and Plaid. "Not only does this collaboration between Dwolla and Plaid make it easier and safer for new entrants, like Clarity Money, to get products to market, it underscores the net new value, best practices, and conversations being generated by fintechs in the space.”
Since its founding in 2012, Plaid has set out to enable innovation throughout financial services. Plaid’s technology infrastructure allows innovators to create new products and services that connect with consumer’s bank accounts and improve their financial flexibility. Applications powered by Plaid benefit tens of millions of consumers.
- 03:00 am
Certua, a data driven fin-tech company has today announced its intention to launch to market in 2017.
• Pioneering robo - life insurance
• Modern fintech aims to deliver the cover you want, when you want it
• Next generation technology can reduce costs substantially
Through intelligent use of data, the company has the ability to provide real-time personalisation of financial solutions, and ongoing recommendations with the customer right at the centre of the process.
The fin-tech company, founded by Chairman John Levin, and headed up by CEO and Co-Founder, Tom Williams, will also have the support of advisory board members, data scientist Peter Hayes, ex-CEO of Old Mutual, Jim Sutcliffe, Chris Traynor, Chief Executive of BE Capital limited and Donal Smith, formerly CEO of Data Explorers. Non-Executive Directors include industry experts, Managing Director of SEI, Brett Williams and technology entrepreneur, Jules Pittam.
The proposition aims to allow both individuals and advisers to benefit from financial planning solutions that automatically adjust as people's lives change. Certua's robo-life insurance service, which will be the first service to be launched by the company, is intended to identify risk exposure throughout an individual’s life span, creating products and services that can auto adjust based on customer need.
The service will combine innovative technology and an effortless user experience to enable end-clients to have one insurance policy with multiple different benefits, each driven by a different data source on either an advised or self-serve basis.
Tom Williams, CEO of Certua said: "Financial Services is among the last big industries to be disrupted; but with open data, changing consumer attitudes and the pace at which technology is evolving, we see it as inevitable.
Securing your finances is a continuous journey with needs changing depending on goals and real life situations. Financial services solutions should always be relevant to where you are in that journey at any given time, while also helping you anticipate and protect against what's coming next, and that is what we aim to deliver.
We believe that the future of financial planning is going to involve a combination of advised and self-service solutions powered by technology. With Certua, we wanted to create a proposition that would augment adviser's abilities and provide the option for either advised or self-serve depending on individual needs.
We see the split in protection and investment advice following Retail Distribution Review as detrimental to the end client, and our solution provides a platform to bring it back together with the aim to enable genuinely holistic financial planning; allowing individuals and their advisers to buy rather than be sold and to insure themselves with simple, modern and relevant digital solutions'.
- 04:00 am
Colt announced today that participants can now receive TSE’s Flex Full market data feed normalised with an FPGA solution1 as part of its market data portfolio for Capital Markets customers.
The managed solution enables clients in colocation to consume the feed immediately without requiring any additional investments or footprint, making this a very cost-effective approach. This FPGA market data solution, powered by NovaSparks, provides financial firms with the benefits of a managed solution, faster time to market, and the ultra-low latency offered by FPGA technology.
Novasparks’ FPGA feed handler normalises data feeds in under one microsecond even during times of high market activity, hence ensuring ultra-low latency and deterministic performance. In addition, the full integration with Colt’s MP-API means that firms can easily combine the ultra-low latency FPGA feed with Colt’s software normalised solution to benefit from enhanced functionality and full redundancy.
“Capital Markets firms face significant challenges to remain competitive. A number of our customers have expressed interest in a managed FPGA market data solution, combining ultra-low latency and flexibility to help them succeed - and without upfront investment costs. At Colt, we thrive on putting customers first and setting the benchmark for customer experience. That’s why we are pleased to bring to market this cost-effective solution that addresses our customers’ requirements and further enhances the Colt Capital Markets portfolio,” said Andrew Housden, Vice President, Capital Markets at Colt.
Olivier Baetz, Chief Operating Officer at NovaSparks, said, “We are proud to partner with Colt to accelerate their market data infrastructure offering. The tight integration of NovaSparks pure FPGA solutions with Colt’s MP-API allows banks and trading firms to leverage the speed of FPGA market data processing in a simple and cost effective manner.”
A licensed market data vendor since acquiring MarketPrizm, Colt offers market data feeds for major European, Asian and North American markets. It offers more than 50 feeds from exchanges and liquidity venues for equities, derivatives, commodities and FX, delivering data at consistently low latencies even during periods of volatility.
- 06:00 am
CommonBond, a leading financial technology company that helps students and graduates pay for higher education, today announces the launch of student loans for undergraduate and graduate students.
“Since CommonBond first helped pioneer student loan refinancing nationwide, we’ve seen very little innovation in the student loan industry,” said David Klein, CEO and co-founder of CommonBond. “The student loan experience we’re launching today is one I wish I had when I was in school. It was the frustration with my own student loan experience - dealing with high rates, poor service, and a confusing process - that led me to start CommonBond in the first place. We’re excited to provide students across the country with the transparent and affordable student loan options they deserve.”
CommonBond’s new in-school loans provide:
• Competitive interest rates: CommonBond’s rates are among the most competitive in the industry, with variable rates starting at 2.87% APR with autopay discount[1] and fixed rates starting at 5.50% APR with autopay discount.
• Flexible repayment options: CommonBond offers four different repayment options for students in school: deferment, fixed monthly payment, interest-only payment, and full monthly payment.
• Award-winning customer service: CommonBond knows that paying for college is the first major financial decision that many students make, and provides best-in-class care for prospective and current members. In 2016, the company was awarded a People's Choice Stevie Award for Favorite Customer Service.
• An industry-first social mission: CommonBond enables its members to drive social good when taking out a student loan. For every student loan funded by CommonBond, the company also funds the education of a child in need through a partnership with Pencils of Promise.
Before today, CommonBond’s loans for current students were only available to MBA students. The company quickly became the largest private lender at many business schools, due to its affordable options, easy online experience, and friendly customer service. Customer response to the product demonstrated a critical need for CommonBond to play a larger part in an industry that lacks tech-enabled, customer-centric options.
“Getting my MBA was a huge financial decision, so I decided to research several different lenders," said Alex Kubo, a CommonBond member. "CommonBond offered me the most competitive rates, had an easy signup process, and even invited me to travel to Ghana last year to see its Social Promise in action. Paying for school can be stressful and hectic, but the care taken by CommonBond throughout both the application process and the term of my loan is proof that it doesn't have to be.”
- 01:00 am
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published data on the number of complaints reported by firms under new rules which came into force on 30 June 2016.
The data reflect the fact that under the new rules, financial services firms have longer to resolve complaints less formally. Firms now have three days to address a complaint to a consumer’s satisfaction, this is up from the previous next business day time limit.
The FCA believes the new data set is more informative because it shows the number of complaints against size of the business. It also provides greater insight about the products that consumers complain about. This information will provide a better understanding of the areas where consumers are struggling to gain satisfaction.
Greater transparency of complaints information will enable consumers looking to invest or buy products to be better informed about the products that have caused concern for other consumers.
Christopher Woolard, Executive Director of Strategy and Competition, said:
“Consumers want a simple way to complain that does not leave them out of pocket. And they want to be assured that their concerns will be dealt with fairly and quickly.
“These data will provide us with improved intelligence on complaints including new detailed data to show where industry is potentially failing consumers at product level”.
Payment protection insurance (PPI) is the most complained about product. The total number of PPI complaints was 895,000. Excluding PPI, the number of complaints was 2.15 million. Current accounts were the next most complained about product with around 514,000.
The total redress paid to consumers was £1.9 billion in the second half of 2016. When all redress payments related to PPI are excluded, the redress figure is approximately £0.3 billion during the same time period.
- 03:00 am
Kuwait-based Path Solutions has been named ‘Islamic Banking Solution Provider of the Year 2017’ at the just-ended Beacon of ICT (BoICT) 2017 Awards. This is the third time that Path Solutions has been named first on this prestigious list, standing out from competition and beating ICS Financial Systems in the finals.
The BoICT Awards are annual ICT awards recognizing organizations and individuals’ contributions to ICT development in Africa. The awards which were instituted in 2008, are organized by Ken Nwogbo, the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, a leading Nigerian ICT newspaper.
“Receiving this distinction two years in a row is a great privilege, and one that demonstrates our passion for delivering world-class Islamic software solutions across all verticals that meet local regulations and standards”, said Mohammed Kateeb, Path Solutions’ Group Chairman & CEO. “Path Solutions enjoys a solid and established reputation in the African market. Africa represents 24% of the company’s client base. This award will further inspire us to continue to lead the Sharia-based technology sector in the African continent in the years to come”.
Path Solutions offers an extensive suite of software solutions and services to address the growing needs of the Islamic finance sector. The company helps its clients to manage all of their front-to-back office software needs, cut costs, meet Sharia and regulatory requirements, exceed their customer expectations, fend off competition and increase their market share.
Commenting on the award, the spokesperson of Communication Week Media Limited, the publishers of Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, said, “I am very pleased to have the honour of informing you that Path Solutions has emerged winner in ‘Islamic Banking Solution Provider of the Year’ category in the 2017 BoICT Awards. You are a clear leader in the sector as over 351,924 of our readers voted for you. This is a strong testament of your innovations, contributions and commitment to the growth of the ICT industry, and we are happy that Africans have indeed recognized your outstanding work and excellence”.
The BoICT Distinguished Lectures/Awards are widely regarded as the largest gathering of ICT practitioners and regulators under one roof. The Award Ceremony rewards best practices and recognizes outstanding contributions to the growth of the Islamic finance sector, while the Distinguished Lecture, now in its eight year, is aimed at charting the way forward for the country’s ICT industry. The theme of the 2017 BoICT Lecture was “Empowering Youth Through Digital Citizenship”.The theme leans heavily on the fact that Information and Communication Technology has become a vital player in the development of modern society.
This year’s BoICT Distinguished Lecture and Award Ceremony were held in the presence of local dignitaries on Saturday, April 22 at the prestigious Eko Hotels and Suites in Lagos. The ceremony was chaired by Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Chairman of Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
- 08:00 am
Medici Ventures, a global leader in advancing blockchain technology, has added bitcoin consumer financial service platform Ripio to its portfolio of strategic blockchain-focused investments through participation in Ripio’s Series A financing.
Ripio’s bitcoin financial services suite utilizes the blockchain and traditional payment rails to allow Latin America’s unbanked and underbanked population (as high as 70% in some areas) to buy and sell bitcoins using local currencies, and to pay for goods and services through a simple, direct transfer to peers and merchants. The platform currently has over seventy thousand users across Argentina and Brazil, and is in the process of expanding to other countries in the region, including Mexico and Colombia.
“Ripio has simplified the peer-to-peer payment system in a way that is accessible to anyone with a smartphone, no matter his or her level of technical sophistication,” said Medici Ventures’ President Jonathan Johnson. “This is exactly the type of life-changing application of blockchain technology that Medici Ventures is interested in.”
“We are super excited to partner with Medici Ventures team,” stated Sebastian Serrano, CEO and Co-Founder of Ripio. “This investment and their experience will help us to leverage our vision of democratizing access to financial services in emerging markets. We are honored to be part of its portfolio and we look to strengthen our synergies in the near future.”
Medici Ventures is a leader in advancing blockchain technology, and parent company of t0.com, which recently aided Overstock.com in completing the world’s first blockchain-based stock offering on its proprietary platform. Medici Ventures has investments in emerging technologies across several industries, including capital markets, banking, identity authentication and protection, land titling, voting, and more.
- 02:00 am
In May 2017, Jason Atherton’s Michelin-starred restaurant and bar, City Social, is set to revolutionise the way we consume cocktails with the launch of MIRAGE, the world’s first augmented reality cocktail menu.
18 months in the making, MIRAGE is a cocktail list elevated to new dimensions with the use of a purpose- built app, created by Mustard Designs. Upon selecting one of the 12 new serves, guests will be presented with a cocktail that initially appears like any other. However, once the app is pointed in the direction of the drink, the augmented reality technology comes into play, transforming the guest’s perception of the cocktail and bringing their surroundings to vivid life.
Created by two of the bar industry’s most established personalities, Group Bar Executive of The Social Company, Jamie Jones, and City Social Bar Manager, Tim Laferla, the inspiration behind the list of cocktails is art through the ages, with each serve influenced by a different artist or era. From Van Gogh to Banksy,
MIRAGE immerses the guest in a vibrant world where great tasting cocktails become interactive art. Using premium spirits from some of the world’s leading drinks companies, including Pernod Ricard, Diageo, William Chase and G’Vine, the list comprises a varied selection of techniques and flavour profiles.
While most of the menu will remain under wraps until launch, City Social has exclusively revealed the details on three of the cocktails set to feature on the new list. Taking inspiration from the Victorian era, Dogstone Brew blends Hendrick’s Gin, port, bergamot, black tea split milk and orchid root to create a clarified milk punch cocktail with floral notes and a long finish that is served accompanied by floating Victoriana-style balloons and Monty Python-esque imagery. A nod to the iconic Art Nouveau posters of the late 1800s and early 1900s, subtle and decadent champagne cocktail, Sashay, blends Perrier Jouët Belle Époque Champagne, Japanese plum wine, jasmine and liquorice and features a beautiful woman reclining on a chaise longue. A mix of Ketel One Vodka, elderflower, bee pollen, lager and egg white, Wheatfields with Fizz references iconic symbols of Van Gogh’s paintings including ‘Starry Night’, ‘Wheatfields with Crows’ and ‘View of Arles’.
- 06:00 am
Avaloq intends to further capitalise on the opportunities offered by the ongoing transformation and digitalisation of the financial industry. Jiten Varu has been appointed as new Head of Product Management and will join Avaloq’s Executive Board.
With Jiten Varu as new Head of Product Management and member of the Executive Board, Avaloq has won a proven expert and experienced leader. He will be reporting directly to Thomas Beck, Avaloq’s Group Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Jiten has over 20 years of experience and brings with him a wealth of knowledge in the financial software, technology and banking industry. Jiten joins Avaloq from Credit Suisse, where he had been Head of Digitalisation for the International Wealth Division. In this position, he drove the digital roadmap, refining client relationship and investment services, leveraging innovation culture for adapted products offerings. Prior to this, Jiten had been leading Digital Strategy & Products at Swissquote, where he championed strategic partnerships and product excellence.
“We are excited to have Jiten on board. He distinguishes himself through his deep understanding of the financial industry and his expertise in client centric delivery coupled with digital product excellence. With his industry knowledge and technology foresight, Avaloq will exploit new opportunities opened up by the digital transformation,” says Thomas Beck, Group CTO for Avaloq.
Jiten holds a first class degree in Information Systems Engineering from the University of Westminster. He started his career in the banking industry at ABN Amro Bank in London where he had worked for more than a decade.
- 02:00 am
Today, BeCyberSure, a leading provider of data management and information security solutions, has revealed implementation of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) risk assessment framework.
Along the expansion of digital marketplace, arises the need for proper data management and its security. GDPR substitutes UK Data protection Act 1998 and applies it to every company that collects, processes or stores EU citizens’ data, irrespective of sector, size and geographical location.
BeCyberSure ensures that all business entities regardless of their size, comply with GDPR via providing accurate audits and comprehensive tests of the organizations’ activities. Particularly, GDPR sets for companies an essential benchmark that navigates them while executing internal changes in their policies. It includes modifications in human resources, technological upgrades, and other procedural aspects that require compliance with regulations.
Carolyn Harrison, Marketing Director at BeCyberSure adds that GDPR is a company wide-issue and should not be applied solely to IT. Every assessment starts with people, policies, and processes to unveil any possible variations that may result in non-compliance.
Harrison also notes: “We then deep-dive, looking at what data the organisation is capturing, how it is processed, what consent has been given, where it is stored and how to dispose of unrequired information”. “The best technology in the world can be rendered useless, if an open door, whether physical or digital, creates the opportunity to access to data.”
No doubts, launch of GDPR assessment is one more proof of the company’s commitment to develop long-term relationships with customers based on transparency and trust.
