The challenge of expanding consumer finance to China’s vast population can only be effectively tackled with a high-tech solution that enables low-cost customer acquisition, Dr. Zhengyu (Zane) Wang, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of China Rapid Finance Limited (“CRF” or “the company”), told the LendIt USA 2017 conference.

Over the past two decades, China has emerged from being a market that in 2000 featured essentially no credit bureau, decision science, or consumer finance, Dr. Wang said in a March 7 keynote address at LendIt USA 2017, which was held at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City. China’s consumer finance market today boasts many of the same elements as the U.S. China now has a central bureau for credit reporting that covers 800 million people, while credit cards serve about 300 million people, he said.

Still, China’s consumer finance market has a long way to go, in a nation where non-mortgage credit is only 2 percent of GDP, Dr. Wang told the LendIt audience. Only about 16 percent of Chinese consumers have credit cards, compared with about 60 percent in the U.S. 

Some 500 million people still have no access to consumer credit, despite having quality jobs, and rising discretionary spending, Dr. Wang said. This consumer segment has been labeled by CRF as Emerging Middle-class Mobile Active consumers, or EMMAs. The group is characterized by people who are typically 18-29 years old, well-educated, urban, and avid smartphone users. Licensed financial institutions have generally not served this population for a variety of reasons, including the strict regulation of lending rates, and the high cost to collect data from such a large group, he said.

Serving this group effectively demands a high-tech solution utilizing Big Data analytics, Dr. Wang said. CRF has become the largest consumer lending marketplace in China in terms of number of loans facilitated by developing innovative and proprietary technologies that use machine learning and Big Data algorithms to analyze thousands of points of non-traditional and unstructured data. The company uses multiple data channels and draws from online behavior and transactions as data sources, enabling low-cost customer acquisition, he said.

The company’s marketplace lending platform is the only one in China to use Predictive Selection Technology to acquire customers on a massive scale at low cost. This has allowed CRF to facilitate more than 10 million loans as of December 31, 2016.

CRF’s unique technology helps EMMAs to build their credit histories by enabling a “low and grow” strategy to meet their lifetime credit needs. Users start with small consumption loans, to pay for a dinner or an e-commerce purchase, and through repeat borrowing and timely repayment, they can work their way up to larger lifestyle loans for purchases such as travel, education and healthcare.

FlexTrade Systems, a global leader in multi-asset execution and order management systems, today announced that Sydney-based Dalton Street Capital, in partnership with Prodigy Investment Partners, has deployed the FlexTRADER EMS to facilitate global cross asset trading of futures, equities and FX.

According to Alan Sheen, Co-Founder and Director, Dalton Street Capital, choosing to partner with FlexTrade was an easy choice after reviewing the firm’s trading solutions and technical support. “FlexTrade’s multi-asset trading EMS, combined with its automation capabilities and intuitive API interface, were truly impressive,” said Sheen. “Now we can automatically hedge our foreign exchange exposure while seamlessly managing cross asset risk.”  

Sheen continued: “Also, one of our primary concerns was finding a firm that would be there for us as our trading requirements increase. Once again, FlexTrade fit the bill.  With their exceptional technical expertise and development capabilities, we feel we have a technology partner in which we can expand and grow our business over the long term.” 

“We are thrilled to partner with Dalton Street Capital and Prodigy Investment Partners,” said Dan Enstedt, Vice President of Business Development for FlexTrade’s Sydney-based operations covering Australia and New Zealand.”  It’s vital for a firm such as Dalton Street Capital to be able to handle all their global multi-asset flow through one execution platform.  With FlexTRADER’s seamless API integration capabilities, Dalton Street Capital can streamline their quantitative investment approach, providing the ability to trade quickly and efficiently across global markets ensuring best execution.”

FlexTRADER is an award-winning, fully customizable execution management system (EMS) with pre-defined trading strategies and tactics for portfolio and single stock trading across all asset classes, including equities, FX, options, futures and fixed income. 

Dataiku, the maker of the collaborative data science software, has been named a strong performer in “The Forrester Wave™: Predictive Analytics And Machine Learning Solutions, Q1 2017.” The report by Forrester Research included 14 of the most significant vendors in Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning (PAML) solutions and evaluated them against 23 criteria grouped by current offering, strategy, and market presence. 

Forrester analysts recognized that Dataiku’s guiding inspiration is “to offer a data science platform that lets coders use a notebook when they must, but use visual tools to build workflows when productivity is at a premium.” The report also recognized that with better model management capabilities the company “is poised to challenge the leaders posthaste.”

In a market forecasted at a 15% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2021¹, Forrester analysts say that PAML solutions today should drive data scientist productivity, allow polyglot programming, and the ability to accommodate non-data scientists into model creation.

Dataiku co-founder and CEO Florian Douetteau commented, “We are thrilled that Forrester has recognized what we consider to be a fundamental component of data science production - that companies who want to innovate around data should provide their teams with the tools that enable all members to work efficiently.”

Last month, Dataiku released version 4.0 of their software platform, a major upgrade that enables seamless collaboration across large teams, improves the ability to segment and score large customer-bases, and introduces compliance and regulatory capabilities, in addition to a plethora of new features that bring scalable data science to any organization, from small startup to global enterprise.

Hundreds of customers including NPR, AXA, Hostel World, KUKA, and L’Oreal,  use Dataiku DSS on a daily basis to collaboratively build predictive dataflows to detect fraud, reduce churn, optimize internal logistics, predict future maintenance issues, and more. Dataiku has offices in Paris and New York.

●     Kofax^®, a leading provider of software to simplify and transform the First Mile™ of business, today announcedthat a top 10 global bank has deployed the Kofax Mobile Credit and Debit Card Framework and the Kofax Mobile Capture™ Platform to allow customers to activate new credit cards by taking a picture of the card using the bank’s mobile app.

●     The bank’s app now allows a customer to activate a new embossed or non-embossed credit card by taking a picture of the card. The credit card account number and expiration date are automatically extracted and used to accelerate the activation process.

●     This capability is expected to significantly enhance the customer’s experience while easing the activation process, shortening the time to card usage and increasing revenue growth potential.

●     Kofax Mobile Credit and Debit Card Framework enables banks to embed these capabilities in their mobile apps, helping their customers facilitate easier payments, balance transfers and new account openings.

●     Kofax Mobile Capture Platform enables organisations to create mobile apps that integrate capture and process management capabilities to streamline information-intensive customer interactions and extend self-service capabilities. It turns mobile devices into information capture devices that deliver a more engaging customer experience to “meet customers where they are” in an anywhere, anytime manner. With Kofax Mobile Capture Platform, organisations can improve customer service and accelerate transactions, thereby increasing revenue and customer loyalty. Kofax Mobile Capture Platform is the only platform in the industry that enables banks to create, deploy and maintain their own mobile capture solutions.

Bosham Capital Advisors (BCA), Investment, Advisory and Capital Markets Specialists, has been appointed by Expressly to develop strategic positioning in the UK and to work with the company on an investment strategy for a second round capital raise later this year. 

Expressly combines a robust technology platform and brand network which has redefined targeting, conversion and user experience. Founded in London in 2014, Expressly has already developed a network of over 200 UK based brands including well-known names such as Addison Lee and Hotel Chocolat. 

The platform's functionality is a transformative evolution on current internet advertising. Brands and Publishers have complete control of their respective exposures and can use the platform to promote a number of actions including bookings, purchases, discovery and donations. 

Expressly enables a simple and compliant 1-click data migration service, removing friction from the transaction process as the customer data is completely secure. The impressive impact of this technology is reflected in key metrics, saving customers 85% of their normal transaction time, which in turn provides 10x better lead conversion for brands in the network.

Fabrizio Fantini, Co-Founder of Expressly commented “Expressly's offering is a disruptive one and will transform digital marketing by increasing conversion and generating significant incremental revenues for brands. We chose to work with BCA due to their specialism in digital media in both business development and capital raising."

Edward Boddington, Partner at BCA said: "When we took this mandate on, we were impressed by the Founders' drive and commitment. In addition, we believe that Expressly represents an innovative commercial development in the E-commerce world." 

Expressly is currently in discussions with high profile Publishers and Brands including charities, telecoms and media providers looking to join the network in 2017. The company is likely to raise additional capital to the £500,000 already invested.

Path Solutions, a major provider of mission-critical, cutting-edge Sharia-compliant financial software solutions, celebrates 25 years old. Thus celebrating its pioneering role in creating a new ground-breaking industry. 

“2017 marks the 25^th Anniversary of Path Solutions. This celebration is to honor our rich past, certainly one we are very proud of, as we pioneered a new era of Sharia-compliant software systems; we commemorate our great present as the undisputed leader in this segment; and we are very excited about the next 25 years of technology innovation and uniqueness”, commented Mohammed Kateeb, Group Chairman & CEO of Path Solutions. “We take pride in the many important milestones we have achieved during our journey, that have sparked the continuous growth of the global Islamic finance industry through technological innovations. Moving into a new chapter, we embark on what promises to be another exciting 25 years marked by unprecedented innovation and agility, by reinventing ourselves in an ever-evolving Islamic financial market where technology changes the world”. 

Path Solutions was founded in 1992. From its origins as a regional software provider, Path Solutions has grown into a global provider of next-generation software solutions and services to the Islamic financial services industry, serving the world’s leading Islamic financial institutions and now, the company is focused on leveraging its core strengths to position itself for the next phase of growth.

“We are so appreciative to our valued clients we have had the privilege of serving over the last quarter of a century. It has been an absolute pleasure and honor working with the best Islamic financial institutions in the world to establish new standards in the Islamic financial services industry”, remarked Mohammed Kateeb. “Furthermore, I want to express my gratitude to our incredible team at Path who has played such a critical role in our success. There have been several key milestones in the last 25 years, and I want to seize the opportunity to acknowledge and sincerely thank those who made these accomplishments possible. Looking ahead, we will continue to pioneer innovative Sharia-compliant software solutions, with the objective of revolutionizing the future of the Islamic finance industry”, Kateeb added.

Path Solutions is the first software provider to develop from the ground up a full suite of software solutions based on the Sharia guidelines. Following the establishment of Path Solutions, the Islamic finance industry has flourished and matured into an important niche sector. Benefiting from first-mover advantage, the company enjoys today strong presence across the Middle East, GCC, Africa, Asia Pacific, South America and United Kingdom with over 100 forward-thinking Islamic financial institutions using its cutting-edge software solutions, strengthening its position as the undisputed leader in the Islamic financial services marketplace.

Lately, Path Solutions extended its lead over competitors in the Islamic finance segment, winning several landmark deals in new geographies such as Dar Assafaa, the new Islamic banking unit of Attijariwafa Bank - a leading bank in Morocco with a presence in 24 countries and with over 7 million customers, Wifak Bank in Tunisia, and Trustbank - the first full-fledged Islamic bank in South America.

Torstone Technology is the leader in post-trade securities and derivatives processing. Today it has announced plans to further expand its services in Asia, supported by senior appointments in Japan, and the signing of a multi-year deal with another new client, Natixis Japan Securities Co. Ltd, to use Torstone’s collateral management module.

Natixis Japan Securities will use Torstone Technology’s flagship post-trade securities and derivatives processing system, Inferno, to improve and automate its collateral management processes, thereby reducing operational inefficiencies and costs in addition to complying more efficiently with various regulatory requirements in Asia.

In support of new clients such as Natixis Japan Securities and as a result of the ever increasing regulatory and compliance obligations faced by firms in Japan, Torstone Technology has been rapidly expanding its operations in Asia and has appointed Takuro Ochiai to head up the Japan office. Takuro has unrivalled expertise in Japan having worked at Daiwa Capital Markets Europe & Hong Kong (seconded from Daiwa Institute of Research) and Nomura Securities. Torstone has also transferred senior staff to the Japan office to provide the required local support.

In addition to the new appointments, Gordon Russell, who joined Torstone Technology as head of sales for Asia Pacific last year, has been appointed head of Asia Pacific. An industry veteran of over 20 years, Gordon will be responsible for all of Torstone’s regional activity.

Commenting on the announcements, Brian Collings, CEO, Torstone Technology said: “Japan is a core market for us and expanding the team here will enable us to further strengthen our support for clients and their regulatory obligations across Asia.”

Adding to this, Collings said: “We are very excited to be working with Natixis Japan Securities. This partnership is testament to Torstone’s local expertise and further highlights our commitment to the Japanese market. We look forward to supporting the firm’s growth in the region by providing more streamlined back-office capabilities.”

Accenture has been positioned as a leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Digital Transformation Service Providers for Utilities 2017 Vendor Assessment1. Accenture was recognized for key strengths, including a platform approach and as-a-service model for digital transformation, improving utilities’ capability, speed and cost, as well as a superior blend of industry knowledge, experience and technical competence.

The report evaluated Accenture and 12 other companies with an established reputation for providing professional services to the utilities industry, with a particular focus on services that support utilities’ digital transformation, as well as an international presence.

The IDC MarketScape assessed the capabilities and strategies of leading services vendors in digital transformation. Services analyzed included: business consulting, business process outsourcing and process services. IT services included consulting, systems and network implementations, outsourcing, application development, deployment support and education and training.

“Our position in this report reflects our continued commitment to leading in innovation for the utilities industry. A key differentiator is our deep industry expertise and experience with utilities globally. We successfully deliver transformational projects enabled by digital technologies,” said Matias Alonso, senior managing director for the Accenture utilities industry group. “This makes us well placed to help utilities achieve new business outcomes and new paths to value in the next phase of their digital journey.”

The report noted that Accenture has actively invested to expand its digital technology assets and capabilities and is one of the fastest growing companies in the digital services industry with a clear investment in digital platforms and as-a-service models, and is an innovation partner of many top industry players. Other differentiators remarked by the report are a clear vision of trends, domain-specific research programs, and innovation delivery capabilities which are successfully applied to the industry's new digital agenda.

“Digital is a core component of our strategy and it is our fastest growing area,” added Alonso. “According to research from Accenture and the World Economic Forum (WEF), the value from rapid digital transformation for the industry is a staggering $1.3 trillion of value by 2025. We are already bringing this potential to the industry and investing in the next generation of leading technologies such as the Industrial Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and blockchain.”

Roberta Bigliani, Head, IDC Energy Insights EMEA, said, “Accenture has significantly expanded its assets and capabilities to support utilities’ digital transformation. To enable utilities to execute fast and scale up, the company is creating platforms that combine services, intellectual property, and technology, and is making them available on a consumption-model basis.”