Published
- 02:00 am
Today LexisNexis reveals the first five participants in its new Silicon Valley legal tech accelerator program that was created to give startups a in the rapidly expanding legal tech industry. In line with LexisNexis' broader vision to transform the way law is practiced, each of the accelerator participants is uniquely innovating in distinct areas of the law. After a thorough evaluation process, the five finalists – Visabot, TagDox, Separate.us, Ping, and JuriLytics – were selected from a list of 40+ promising startups for the interesting nature of their businesses and their innovative use of technology.
Based in the Menlo Park, CA offices of Lex Machina, the program will leverage the vast content resources, deep expertise in legal, technology, and startup domains, and industry-leading market positions of LexisNexis and Lex Machina to guide and mentor program participants. The program will be led by Lex Machina CEO Josh Becker with support from LexisNexis' Chief Technology Officer, Jeff Reihl, Chief Product Officer, Jamie Buckley, Vice President of US Product Management, Jeff Pfeifer, and Lex Machina Chief Evangelist, Owen Byrd.
"We're very excited to kick off our tech accelerator with five incredible and promising startups – Visabot, TagDox, Separate.us, Ping, and JuriLytics – and look forward to providing them with the practical guidance and industry expertise they need to advance their businesses," said Jeff Pfeifer. "The goal of our tech accelerator program is to identify some of the best and brightest legal tech startups, contribute to their early success, and then watch as their innovative technologies and vision transform the business and practice of law."
The five charter members of the LexisNexis legal tech accelerator program are:
- Visabot: An "immigration robot" powered by artificial intelligence that helps customers complete U.S. visa applications, including locating relevant open data about an applicant, guiding applicants in the process of gathering supporting documents, ensuring forms are filled out accurately, and drafting appropriate language to tell the applicant's story.
- TagDox: A legal document analysis tool that creates tags, allowing users to identify and structure information in a variety of document types, improving both the speed and the quality of the document review process; "tag results" can transform documents into easily readable summaries, checklists, database feeds or approval overviews.
- Separate.us: A web-based application that automates legal document preparation for divorces and provides access to relevant professionals at affordable fixed rates, deploying a business model that targets both B2B and B2C customers.
- Ping: An automated timekeeping application that collects all of a lawyer's billable hours, capturing missed time and money (an estimated 20% across the industry), and operating entirely in the background in concert with standard legal billing software.
- JuriLytics: An expert witness peer review service that attorneys can use to challenge their opponent's experts with previously unobtainable credibility and bullet-proof their own expert's work through vetting from the world's top researchers (in any field of expertise).
Throughout the rigorous, 12-week curriculum, tech accelerator participants will gain knowledge and expertise in a variety of topics including technology and product development; running an agile product development organization; building a strong company culture; selling to legal departments and law firms; leveraging legal data; and best practices in customer success, marketing and fundraising. In addition, they will have access to a vast collection of enriched legal data and cutting-edge tools and technologies from LexisNexis, and will be able to leverage the company's established relationships with Stanford University and other leading Bay Area schools, businesses, VCs and influencers to grow their companies.
"The LexisNexis legal tech accelerator is a promising initiative," said Miriam Rivera, Managing Partner at Ulu Ventures and an advisor at the Venture Capital Director's College, a part of The Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University. "As a legal tech investor and former Deputy GC of Google responsible for expanding the use of legal technology throughout the department, I am convinced the LexisNexis tech accelerator will not only foster innovation but also encourage new companies to thrive with sound business practices."
- 09:00 am
Today BrokerTec, NEX Group’s leading electronic fixed income trading platform, reports that following Bank of Italy approval, it has completed the transaction to acquire a majority stake in e-MID SIM SpA (e-MID). This is the first Italian electronic central limit order book (CLOB) platform for interbank deposits and Overnight Indexed Swaps (OIS). The transaction offers BrokerTec Europe a strong footprint in the important Italian debt and money markets.
Giuseppe Attana will remain as Chairman of the e-MID Board and John Edwards, Richard Leighton and Lorenzo Ruffatti will join e-MID’s Board to represent BrokerTec and the broader NEX Group.
Seth Johnson, Chief Executive Officer, EBS BrokerTec, said: “This acquisition is an important strategic step for BrokerTec. e-MID is the leading provider for the Italian interbank deposit and money markets which are the largest in Europe. We are committed to growing our footprint in this central market and to contributing to its development and evolution. e-MID brings access to the domestic financial community in Italy and we will work closely with the management team to develop existing products and services, as well as to offer EBS BrokerTec products to the current client base.”
BrokerTec plans to establish a money market offering for Italian corporates by connecting e-MID with EBS Treasury, its money market fund (MMF) platform for the corporate community. It is also expected that there will be other areas of opportunity for e-MID to work with the wider portfolio of NEX Group businesses.
John Edwards, Managing Director, BrokerTec Europe Ltd who will manage the overall integration of the e-MID business and on-going daily operations, said: “This acquisition presents an exciting opportunity to expand both the core e-MID and BrokerTec product suites and in particular secure better access to the largest and most active Sovereign bond market in Europe. The acquisition and integration of this business will enable BrokerTec, and the rest of the NEX Group, to better access the extensive Italian financial community and allow us to develop new product lines.”
Giuseppe Attana, Chairman of e-MID, said: “We are very proud of our reputation and success in the Italian fixed income market. Our technology, products and customer base fit well with those of BrokerTec Europe and we’re looking forward to working with the NEX Group as a whole to strengthen our offering.”
- 01:00 am
FINMA granted the request submitted by SIX for the CO:RE trading platform to be recognized as a multilateral trading facility. This represents a further milestone for SIX in its implementation of the regulatory requirements relating to the Swiss value chain with a view to making it easier for international participants to enter the market.
Thomas Zeeb, Division CEO SIX Securities Services: "SIX Securities Services consistently aims to raise the level of transparency on the financial markets and to guarantee its customers access to the money market that is recognized by regulators. The award of multilateral trading system status by FINMA is part of our long-term strategy for domestic and cross-border repo transactions."
- 01:00 am
Today IHS Markit, a global leader in critical information, analytics and solutions, announced the addition of new functions to its Know Your Third Party Risk Management platform (KY3P) to further develop its rapidly growing customer base.
As the KY3P community continues to expand, new features and functionality have been added to meet customer demand. Consumers, including founding design partners, will have greater access for control, flexibility and customization. This includes the ability to add proprietary information about their vendors and utilize risk scoring capabilities. The risk scoring calculator tool enables consumers to create their own metrics to review, assess and score due diligence responses for accuracy and completeness.
Consumers will also be able to assess gaps in third party and vendor responses by identifying areas for resolution through new remediation and tracking workflows. Further developments will also enable these organizations to modify and save unique templates geared to specific vendor profiles.
On the vendor side, new functionality will automate workflows within the due diligence questionnaire (DDQ) process. Vendors will be able to assign individual questions to colleagues and monitor response completion status. Additionally, the questionnaire interface design will be refreshed to reduce clicks and save critical review time to market.
“With KY3P, we are continually reviewing and assessing our product roadmap to address the needs of both consumers and vendors,” said Cyrus Daftary, co-head of operational risk and regulatory compliance solutions at IHS Markit. “The feedback we receive from our customers and the strong demand for new functionality is a testament to the industry’s commitment in managing third party risk. As more users become actively engaged on the platform, it will continue to drive inherent value for consumers and vendors alike.”
- 05:00 am
Today B3 is born to provide the best financial market infrastructure that is complemented by a wide range of products and services. It results from alliance of BM&FBOVESPA, one of the largest exchanges in the world in terms of market capitalization, and CETIP, the largest depository for private sector debt securities in Latin America. Together, BM&FBOVESPA and CETIP become a company that is far more than the sum of its parts, with substantial benefits for clients and business partners. B3 is better suited for facing a dynamic, challenging and globally competitive market. It marks the start of work on a culture aligned with the company’s new place in history.
“The new company will create synergy opportunities and widen the range of activities of the two companies, which complement each other not only in products and services, but also in the manner of their activities and in excellence, becoming a single company of global proportions that is a global reference point,” said Gilson Finkelsztain, who up until April 30 will be Chief Integration Officer of the new company and take over as Chief Executive Officer as of May 01.
In addition to its synergies of scale and its range of products, another major advantage the new business offers the market is greater capital efficiency for clients through the possibility of using, for example, OTC and exchange-traded derivatives with the same central counterparty. And then there is a regulatory security that is strict but has compliance cost alone, from the self-regulation angle.
The integration of BM&FBOVESPA and CETIP’s activities significantly reinforces B3’s business model as it increases revenue diversification, which over time will grant financial institutions, custodians, registrars, asset managers and brokerage houses the consolidation of their back office and treasury systems, with significant reductions to operating costs and risk for the entire financial system, as well as efficiency gains in interaction with market surveillance bodies.
- 02:00 am
Citigroup Pty Limited has to pay approximately $5 million to around 230,000 customers, for failing to properly disclose that credit card international transaction fees apply to Australian dollar transactions where the merchant uses an entity based overseas to process its transactions.
This may have led customers to believe that international transaction fees would be charged only when a transaction was made in a foreign currency or with an overseas merchant. For Citibank-issued credit cards, Australian dollar transactions with an Australian website where the merchant uses a foreign bank or entity to process transactions - attract international transaction fees.
Citibank has identified impacted customers of Citibank-branded and Citibank partner-branded credit cards, and has refunded customers with the amount of the fee charged plus interest. Citibank has also updated its disclosure to clearly state that Australian dollar transactions - where the merchant uses a foreign bank or entity to process transactions - will also attract international transaction fees.
Citibank will also refund over $48,000 to 30,174 Virgin Money credit card customers for charging an incorrect percentage amount of the international transaction fee. This error resulted in customers being overcharged by 0.1% of the transaction value.
This follows similar concerns with Westpac's credit cards, which resulted in 820,000 customers being refunded approximately $20 million in September 2016.
ASIC Deputy Chairman Peter Kell said, 'Financial product issuers must take care to provide clear disclosure to help consumers understand all circumstances where fees will be charged.'
ASIC's warning to consumers
ASIC continues to warn consumers to be mindful when making credit card transactions, because transactions in Australian dollars with overseas merchants, or processed by an entity outside Australia (that is, the merchant's financial institution or payment provider) can attract foreign transaction fees.
This is particularly important in an on-line shopping environment because foreign transaction fees may apply where a merchant’s website has an Australian address (domain name) or where a foreign merchant advertises and invoices prices in Australian dollars.
Consumers should check with the merchant whether the transaction they make is with an overseas-based merchant or processed overseas. Consumers with queries or concerns about the charging of credit card foreign transaction fees should contact their credit card issuer.
- 01:00 am
ATB Financial has joined forces with KPMG in Canada and global fintech matchmaking firm, Matchi to run a Customer Onboarding Innovation Challenge that aims to reimagine customer onboarding and management through collaboration with fintech firms.
The Customer Onboarding Global Innovation Challenge will close for entry on Wednesday 19 April 2017 at 23:59 MST (Canada Mountain Standard Time). The challenge is free to enter and is open to any firm that has developed and built a solution that aligns to one of the four challenge categories:
Challenge Category 1: Seamless KYC
ATB is looking for an innovative solution that delivers a seamless KYC process across channels and devices:
• The solution should transform the customer experience by reimagining the capture of client data and profile creation while being smart, simple and helpful.
• The solution should ensure adherence to KYC rules across channels and products when onboarding new customers.
• The solution should be easy to reconfigure in response to regulatory changes and / or changes to business requirements.
• Ideally the solution will be applicable to both retail and small & medium sized business banking clients.
Challenge Category 2: Automate Onboarding
ATB is looking for a solution that helps automate and optimize onboarding and fulfilment processes:
• The solution should automate the collection of relevant data as needed for product fulfilment and automate the internal sharing of existing client data across ATB teams (e.g. credit application).
• The solution will be applied to small & medium sized business banking clients and where possible, retail clients.
Challenge Category 3: Ecosystem Information Flow
ATB is looking for a solution to more efficiently manage the interaction and flow of information within its ecosystem of service providers.
• In particular, the solution should address the movement of documents between parties in real estate/mortgage transactions (i.e. realtors, solicitors, appraisers, financial institutions).
• Solution should be extendable to other classes of service providers such as credit card and item processing etc.
Challenge Category 4: Emerging Identity Tech
ATB is looking for a solution that leverages advanced and emerging technologies to support identity management for the future:
• Specifically, leading edge solutions that will become commercialized over the next 3 - 5 years
• The solution may include technologies like blockchain, advanced biometrics, wearables, internet of things and beyond.
Entry into the Customer Onboarding Global Innovation Challenge is exclusively through the Matchi portal at https://matchi.biz/atbchallenge
On the Matchi site, prospective entrants can find more information on the entry criteria, process and timeline before logging in (or signing up) to submit an overview of their solution, and motivate why it should be selected for this unique opportunity.
“The Canadian banking system is recognized as one of the strongest in the world and has been ranked the soundest by the World Economic Forum for seven consecutive years. Canada currently has a number of institutions ranked in the global top 50 and is a world leading innovator in the financial services industry. This fintech challenge is a unique opportunity to promote innovative solutions to this market and support major Canadian financial institutions in their strategies, to enhance the customer experience and achieve new levels of operational performance.” - David Bolton, Financial Services Partner, KPMG.
All entries will be validated by KPMG and Matchi analysts and then individually scored by a panel of executives from ATB Financial. The highest ranking solutions in each category will be invited to pitch their innovation to a panel from ATB Financial, KPMG and Matchi who will, in turn select at least two as the ultimate winners.
The winners of the Customer Onboarding Global Innovation Challenge will be given the opportunity to prove the value and impact of their solution with a paid proof-of-concept project at ATB Financial with a view to implementation and roll out within the Canadian Financial Institution.
"We're excited to be working with ATB Financial and KPMG Canada to help them source high-quality, proven fintech solutions from around the world that can have a real impact, for the business, for their innovation agenda, and ultimately for ATB customers. This is a great opportunity for fintech firms with great solutions from around the world to work with a truly innovative and customer-focused bank in the Canadian market.” - David Milligan, CEO, Matchi
- 01:00 am
Otherwise, France’s first peer-to-peer insurance platform, renovates insurance, followed by launches of the first P2P health insurance product digital, fair and community-driven.
Founded by Cécile Mérine, Raphael Berger et Aymeric Augustin, the Insurtech startup offers a 100%- online client experience and provides transparent, tailored and empowered insurance. The ambitious model is based on organizing members into small affinity groups, encouraging risk prevention, andincentivizing responsible behaviors with a collaborative bonus. These innovations allow Otherwise to offer the only insurance that gives customers their money’s worth - covering members in case of claims, but also reimbursing them when all goes well. With this new model, Otherwise is challenging traditional insurers and has positioned itself as the French Insurtech to watch.
A FUNDING ROUND TO BRING PEOPLE, INSURANCE AND TECHNOLOGY TOGETHER
With this funding round, the startup secures the support of 360 Capital Partners, private investors, and Bpifrance as part of the Investing for the Future program (Concours d’Innovation Numérique). The company will use the €1.6M to further develop its technology platform, and machine learning algorithms, to provide the best possible user experience, and to solidify its position in the French market.
François Collet, Partner at 360 Capital Partners, says “Otherwise is led by a brilliant team, who is revolutionizing the insurance market. The successful launch of their health insurance product, in a highly sought-after market segment, will be quickly followed by other products with broad appeal.”
Amongst Otherwise’s private investors group, François Leneveu, Co-founder and President of Altaprofits, the inventor of online life insurance, adds “The insurance market remains very traditional. Otherwise has numerous competitive advantages to take on, and to create, the real and lasting change needed in the sector.”
Raphael Berger, Co-founder and President of Otherwise concludes, “This funding round and the expertise of our new investors will allow us to accelerate the release of our products and to help us maintain our market lead. It is a show of confidence in our ambitious project, and reinforces our desire and determination to provide a fundamentally improved insurance experience.”
- 07:00 am
Custom Connect, one of the world’s few independent carrier neutral connectivity providers, is going beyond industry standards to offer global enterprises greater insight into their far-reaching networks and business-critical applications.
CC Insight launched today at the Connecting the Cloud event, an Industry get together for leading players in the European cloud arena, organised by Custom Connect in cooperation with Equinix, Fuze, Huawei, IPKnowledge, NetDialog and RIPE NCC.
The new monitoring system, CC Insight, does what the major carriers cannot - and will not - do, by giving global enterprises a comprehensive look into not only the efficiency of their network’s switches, cables, routers, and repeaters but the applications that depend on it.
Custom Connect CTO, Rutger Bevaart: “Optimizing and managing application performance used to be a complex issue involving all layers of the IT organisation. But using innovative technologies that provide full network and application performance visibility in a carrier-neutral managed connectivity model breaks these barriers down”.
To provide this mission-critical insight, Custom Connect partnered with NetDialog to utilize their NetX platform. The up-to-the-minute, easy-to-understand analytical information gives global enterprises intelligent visibility and control of performance, user experience, delivery of applications in IT infrastructures, as well as the WAN performance.
“Custom Connect’s focus is on creating the best possible connectivity solution for our clients - and now with CC Insight, we have added a high degree of cloud-based intelligence to our solutions, giving our customers insight and control into their infrastructures,” explained Bevaart.
- 06:00 am
As new Accenture research demostartes Artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT) now comprise almost half of total investment in insurance technology (insurtech) startups worldwide. The research, which includes new analysis of CB Insights data on 450 insurtech deals over the last three years, appears in a new Accenture report titled “The Rise of InsurTech.” The report was released today in conjunction with Accenture’s Fintech Innovation Lab in London, which for the first time includes a dedicated insurtech stream comprising leading industry startups.
According to the report, the combined number of deals across AI (including automation) and the IoT (including connected insurance) increased 79 percent in 2016. Even though the two technologies represented only one-quarter (24 percent) of the 216 insurtech deals globally last year, they accounted for 44 percent or US$711 million of total insurtech investment — compared with just 10 percent of global insurtech investment in 2015.
“We’ve seen a rapid acceleration of investment into and deal activity around intelligent automation and IoT start-ups over the last 12 months,” said Roy Jubraj, a co-author of the report and Accenture’s Digital & Innovation lead in the company’s Financial Services practice in the U.K. and Ireland. “These technologies are primed to disrupt the industry in the years to come, so it’s fitting that we’ve established a dedicated insurtech stream as a key part of Accenture’s FinTech Innovation Lab in London.”
According to the report, the insurance industry views AI and the IoT as critical to delivering increased levels of personalization and better real-world outcomes for customers. Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform the insurance industry from simply assessing risk based on past experience to monitoring risks in real-time and mitigating, or even preventing, losses for customers. The IoT will enable insurers to offer more-personalized, real-time service; boost operational efficiency; and price their products with greater precision.
Despite the political and economic uncertainty around the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union, the country continued to attract strong insurtech investment in 2016. Even though the number of insurtech deals in the U.K. remained flat, the value of the investments there more than doubled last year, to almost US$19 million. Investment in AI and the IoT also increased significantly, to almost US$1.7 million in total.
Germany and France also saw strong growth in investment in 2016 to round out the top three insurtech markets in Europe. With insurtech’s investment expanding globally, the United States’ share of deal volume in 2016 dropped slightly, from 63 to 56 percent of total deals. The percentage of insurtech investment for the rest of the world (deals outside the traditional hubs) more than doubled, from 11 percent in 2015 to 23 percent in 2016.
Insurtech’s shifting geographic focus maps closely to similar global trends across fintech. Recent Accenture fintech analysis showed that China, and more broadly, Asia Pacific, are playing a more prominent role as investment destinations for fintech capital. While global investment into fintech ventures grew 10 percent in 2016, to US$23.2 billion, Asia Pacific as a region for the first time eclipsed North America, with fintech investments there more than doubling in 2016, to US$11.2 billion.
Julian Skan, a senior managing director in Accenture’s Financial Services practice who oversees the FinTech Innovation Lab London, said, “The rise in insurtech is further evidence of the growing role that new technologies are playing in shaping innovation across financial services. The next challenge for insurtech startups is the same as what the more mature fintechs are now facing – being able to translate that investment into growth and customer acquisition.”
