NATO has authorized the Dutch secure mobile phone Sectra Tiger/S 7401 for use at the NATO SECRET level. Thus, the technology meets all the requirements on security imposed, within the NATO organization for the reporting confidential information.

The ability to transfer information quickly and securely, without the risk of eavesdropping, can be vitally important for authorities, defense organizations, and critical societal functions. Sectra Tiger/S 7401 offers the highest level of protection against eavesdropping attacks, even from state actors, and is a unique solution that is approved for both mobile and fixed communication at the NATO SECRET security level.

Sectra developed Sectra Tiger/S 7401 under guidance from the Netherlands National Communications Security Agency (NL-NCSA). This approval confirms that the long and fruitful cooperation between Sectra and NL-NCSA meets the highest requirement for communication security. 

Thanks to cooperation with customers and national security authorities in numerous countries, Sectra’s various solutions for secure communications have now been delivered to more than half of the EU’s member states, for national use and within the context of the EU and NATO. Users include government officials, officials in the diplomatic corps, decision-makers in defense and critical infrastructure, and military personnel in the field. Common to these is that they use security-approved products to communicate securely and that they have high demands on flexibility and mobility. 

Telecoms specialist adviser, Analysys Mason has published its annual series of Connected Consumer surveys, analysing mobile customer behaviour in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The survey took into consideration following factors, such as purchasing criteria when changing mobile plans, the impact of data pricing and network coverage on customer satisfaction, and the adoption of OTT services such as WhatsApp.

Published Connected Consumer survey reports include:

• Mobile services and devices in Sub-Saharan Africa
• OTT and digital economy services in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Mobile churn and customer satisfaction in Sub-Saharan Africa

Stephen Sale, Research Director at Analysys Mason shares some insight from the surveys:

• The main factor cited by customers planning to make a change to their mobile plan was higher data speeds.

30% of respondents stated that they intended to make a change to their mobile plan in the next six months. 44% of these stated that they were looking for improved data speeds, with the highest proportions occurring in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya. The number two and three factors were improved network coverage (cited by 33% of respondents planning to make a change) and larger data allowances (32%).

• Overage policies negatively affect customer satisfaction of postpaid customers in South Africa.

In South Africa, 51% of postpaid users with handset bundles regularly exceed their data allowances and report lower satisfaction scores, probably due to the pay-as-you-use overage policies common in South Africa. Only around 20% of our respondents stated that they use data within the limits of their allowances.

• Operators have little control over handset distribution in much of the region.

Consumers in SSA often choose non-operator channels for their handset purchases and pay in cash. In Ghana and Nigeria, operator channels accounted for as little as 16% of all handset sales.

• WhatsApp is the leading OTT communications app in the region but voice-centric apps such as imo, Skype and WhatsCall are also popular.

WhatsApp was the most popular OTT service in each country and was used by 86% of respondents overall. 42% of respondents said that they use apps for free voice calling. The high rates of VoIP usage should be of particular concern to operators as smartphone penetration increases.

• Sub-Saharan Africa is a mobile-first region for ecommerce.

43% of survey respondents made online purchases at least once a month. Mobile handsets are the primary means of access, with 74% of respondents making purchases through their mobile phone, far above any other device category. Access to a mobile money wallet is a strong predictor of mobile commerce engagement. In Kenya, 80% of Safaricom’s customers made regular purchases from their mobile devices.

 Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, has been named among the 2017 FORTUNE Magazine “World’s Most Admired Companies^®”.

Fiserv serves thousands of clients worldwide, including financial institutions ranging from the largest banks to neighborhood financial institutions. This marks the fourth consecutive year Fiserv has been awarded this prestigious recognition and fifth time in the last six years. This year, Fiserv ranked at the top of its category for innovation. The company also rated highly for financial soundness, long-term investment value and quality of management. These acknowledgements reflect Fiserv leadership as an innovator and expert in fintech, as well as the company's focus on creating value for clients, associates and shareholders.

“A large part of our mission is to enable our clients to deliver financial technology solutions and customer experiences that enhance differentiation and build their businesses,” said Jeffery Yabuki, President and Chief Executive Officer, Fiserv. “It is an honor to be recognized as one of the Most Admired Companies in the world for the fourth year in a row. I am so proud of our 23,000 associates worldwide who bring their very best to Fiserv for the benefit of our clients every day.”

The annual FORTUNE Magazine “World's Most Admired Companies” list is a definitive benchmark of corporate reputation. Thousands of executives, directors and analysts are surveyed in order to compile the list. Survey respondents rate companies on nine criteria — innovation, people management, use of corporate assets, social responsibility, quality of management, financial soundness, long-term investment value, quality of products or services, and global competitiveness.

In a world that is moving faster than ever before, Fiserv helps clients deliver solutions that are in step with the way people live and work today – financial services at the speed of life. Learn more at Fiserv.com.

Additional Resources

• FORTUNE Magazine World’s Most Admired Companies 2017 - http://beta.fortune.com/worlds-most-admired-companies

• Fiserv Awards and Recognition - https://www.fiserv.com/about/awards.aspx

Oxygen Finance Ltd (“Oxygen”), the leading early payment provider, has today (16 February) announced the acquisition of Satago, the all-in-one, on-demand cash flow finance solution for SMEs.

The transaction will see the two businesses working together to offer comprehensive early payment, finance and cash flow solutions for both large buying organisations and suppliers of all sizes, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Oxygen provides the capability for large public and private sector organisations to pay suppliers ahead of contracted terms in return for a discount against their invoices. The company offers functionally-rich technology integrated with the buyer’s existing ERP system, improves Purchase to Pay (P2P) processes andundertakes supplier on-boarding activities.Buyers generate savings and efficiency gains through the operation of an effective payment strategy.

Satago provides cloud-based technology that integrates with an SME’s existing accounting software, giving it the same level of credit control as larger businesses. By automating and managing communication with debtors, it helps clients to generate invoice reminders, visualise credit risk and formulate policies and limits, all with the aim of improving cash flow. Combined with a dynamic, on-demand selective single invoice finance solution launched last year, Satago is the only finance provider on the market to assess and actively improve clients’ financial health as well as offering them finance.

Ben Jackson, CEO of Oxygen, commented: “Satago’s offering is hugely complementary to Oxygen, accelerating our growth and enabling clients to interact with their suppliers through automation that would have been inconceivable just a few years ago.

“Oxygen’s early payment solutions for large buyers, which facilitates payment to suppliers ahead of contracted terms, is the perfect partner for Satago’s proven business model of giving SME suppliers the tools in their native accounting applications to improve receivables management.

“Combining these capabilities, Oxygen and Satago will be well positioned to lead the market in delivering modern, integrated payment and receivable strategies for large buying organisations and their suppliers, SMEs included.”

Steven Renwick, CEO and founder of Satago, added: “Satago is a natural fit for Oxygen. Our accounts receivable technology and supplier-focused single invoice finance facility is neatly complemented by Oxygen’s early payment technology.

“We are really excited to combine the businesses to do more to help UK SMEs get paid even faster and improve their cash flow.”

Late payment is a continued problem for many SMEs and micro businesses in the UK, with many relying on getting paid during their debtor day period to maintain cash flow and avoid facing a shortage of working capital.

According to a recent report by Bacs Payment Schemes Ltd (December 2016), nearly 50 per cent of UK SMEs are paid late, with an average debt of £32,185 and £26.3billion combined.

NYMBUS Inc., a provider of the world’s most current mission-critical core banking technology, today announced Kaiperm Diablo Federal Credit Union has selected NYMBUS SmartCore to enable growth and differentiation. With NYMBUS SmartCore, a full holistic core banking platform, Kaiperm Diablo will be able to modernize the digital customer experience for its members in Northern California, while streamlining back-end operations and processes.

Kaiperm Diablo Federal Credit Union was first chartered in 1957 and since expanded membership to include Kaiser Permanente employees at all locations in Northern California.

“Being located just outside Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area, we recognize the importance of technology innovation to meet the evolving needs of our tech-savvy members,” said Leslie (Les) K. Chan, chairman, Board of Directors, Kaiperm Diablo Federal Credit Union. “NYMBUS and Kaiperm Diablo have a shared vision of how technology can be used to drive membership growth and competitive differentiation. In addition, only NYMBUS was positioned to deliver the technology innovation with the speed, agility and urgency we required.”

Kaiperm Diablo, like many financial institutions, is addressing the rapid shift in consumer needs and growing competition from outside the financial services industry. The core banking platform is the most important technology of any financial institution. NYMBUS SmartCore is a full holistic core banking platform that unifies all the required functions in one system with one data set. This allows Kaiperm Diablo to streamline workflows, while modernizing existing software and hardware infrastructure. Like all of NYMBUS’ customers, Kaiperm Diablo is assigned its own dedicated private cloud, ensuring the highest levels of security as well as compliance with the latest industry standards in a faster, easier and most affordable manner.

David Mitchell, president at NYMBUS, said: “Digital innovation is driving business forward, nowhere more evident than in financial services. We’re seeing phenomenal growth of our core banking platform, particularly among financial institutions who are with the traditional legacy fintech providers, and we are incredibly excited to partner with Kaiperm Diablo. Together, we’ll be able to drive business growth and enhance the digital customer experience for its members.”

 AxiomSL, the global provider of regulatory reporting and risk management solutions, announced today that Fifth Third Bank, a top 20 US commercial banking organization, will deploy the AxiomSL data-driven platform to meet the requirements for its analytical and regulatory reporting needs. The regulations covered will include U.S. Liquidity calculations (LCR), CCAR requirements and other required Federal Reserve reporting.

“AxiomSL’s integrated platform is expected to enable us to meet financial and regulatory requirements, while also streamlining our reporting processes across critical business functions. This should provide us with the flexibility to meet evolving regulatory demands.”

In these times of constantly changing regulations, with ever increasing data analytical and reporting requirements, financial institutions need to adopt a more strategic and holistic approach supported by an integrated platform. AxiomSL’s system enables banks to not only meet their analytical and regulatory reporting obligations, but also manage their risk exposure across all business functions more effectively and transparently. The high-performance capabilities of the platform in gathering, aggregating, enriching, validating and processing large amounts of data across multiple systems at any level of granularity, running the data through relevant calculations and populating the reports, were key considerations for Fifth Third Bank.

“Our decision to build a relationship with AxiomSL is due, in large part, to our interest in keeping pace with the complexity of today’s regulatory environment and in maintaining cost-effectiveness across all operations,” said Blane Scarberry, Vice President, Director of External Reporting at Fifth Third Bank. “AxiomSL’s integrated platform is expected to enable us to meet financial and regulatory requirements, while also streamlining our reporting processes across critical business functions. This should provide us with the flexibility to meet evolving regulatory demands.”

“We are very pleased to have been selected by Fifth Third Bank as their strategic regulatory partner and are looking forward to working closely with them in ensuring a rapid paced implementation,” said Alex Tsigutkin, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), AxiomSL. “To this end, AxiomSL’s platform will leverage their existing data and risk management infrastructure to meet LCR and CCAR requirements while ensuring that data is analysed, enriched and reconciled in a consistent, auditable manner with drill down and validation checks. This strategic and holistic approach empowers U.S. BHC’s to address quickly stringent and multiple submission deadlines emanating from regional and global authorities while delivering data aggregation capabilities, data governance and internal controls."

ICS Financial Systems Limited (ICSFS), the global software and services provider for banks and financial institutions, announced that it has been named a member of the “World Finance 100” in recognition of its excellence in the field of banking solutions.

Each year World Finance compiles the list of 100 individuals and companies – not according to capitalisation figures or growth, but purely on excellence in their field.Research undertaken by the team at World Finance, along with the finest insight from the magazine’s worldwide readership, has found the best names in critical markets around the globe, from financial services, technology and telecommunications to media, pharmaceuticals and healthcare. Perusing through the World Finance 100, which names those that have set new standards, introduced new opportunities to their markets and held steadfast their sustainability goals, readers will see that optimism is possible, even at times when we feel it least.

Managing Director of ICSFS; Robert Hazboun commented on this occasion,

“We are honoured to have been selected for the World Finance 100. This kind of recognition proves that we are delivering on our promise to provide the bespoke state-of-the-art financial products and services, and best possible returns for our client’s technology investment achievable anywhere.” Mr Hazboun added; “Innovation is the key for banks to flourish in this digital era, that is why we provide our customers with the utmost advanced banking solutions and service offerings, to experience the true meaning of “one-stop shop”.

 And the Group Managing Editor ‘of World Finance; Michael Mills commented: “ICSFS Have been at the forefront of innovative Islamic and core banking software solutions for a number of years now.  Their attention to detail and individual client requirements in a very fluid industry has meant that they can offer a range of services that will ensure the delivery of a first-class banking service”.

World News Media is a leading publisher of quality financial and business magazines, enjoying a global distribution network that includes subscriber lists of the most prominent and senior decision-makers around the world.

ICS BANKS provides a complete suite of banking modules with a rich sweep of functionalities and features, addressing business needs and automating accounting processes, as needed, to improve a bank’s business performance. ICS BANKShas always been a pioneer in utilising the latest technology to serve financial institutions. In addition to its embedded Service-Oriented-Architecture (SOA), the system is deployed in a multi-tiered setup that runs on a web thin client. 

Consumers and financial organizations will gain various advantages from new mobile-ready ATM solution. That will become possible through software, hardware, and services. A large, 19-inch multi-touch display enables tablet-like interactions, where consumers can swipe, pinch and zoom their way quickly through transactions.

Built-in video banking also enables financial institutions to offer high-touch, personalized service, where customers can be helped by a live teller right at the ATM. This means financial institutions can extend their personal service coverage and be available as close or far from home and as early or late as they choose to be. NCR is currently the only company that can offer video banking fully integrated in one ATM platform. This capability streamlines the way branch staff serve customers with auto loans, mortgages, credit cards or deposits across the network. NCR’s research shows that 80 percent of the transactions typically completed inside a physical branch can be completed through a live video teller at an ATM.

“The power of digital banking is that it empowers customers to be self-directed and choose the level of interaction they want. But banking is a relationship business, and bankers want to stand ready to provide one-to-one interactions at moments that are the most relevant, useful, and actionable,” said Mark Schwanhausser, Director Omnichannel Financial Services, Javelin Strategy & Research. “ATMs with video tellers and enhanced capabilities can play a critical role in digital-first customer service by providing the combination of convenience and immediate assistance. It’s a way to restore a human face to an increasingly digital-banking relationship.”

“Financial institutions need to be ready to offer the experience digital natives demand as they come of age and require more financial services,” said Jose Resendiz, vice president, financial services, at NCR Corporation. “This launch fundamentally transforms the ATM to be perfectly aligned with how consumers want to bank and gives financial institutions a new way to realize omni-channel transformational strategies.”

Today, Fidessa group revealed that Prospector, its automated liquidity-generating module, has been voted Best New Product in the annual Fund Technology & Wall Street Letter (WSL) Awards. These grants recognize and reward providers, serving asset managers and institutional traders that have shown new, highly innovative product extension over the past 12 months. 

As market complexity continues to intensify, and the volume of data and its variety of sources continue to rise, a dashboard approach becomes essential to understanding trading workflow and ensuring it is always tuned for optimum results.

Prospector does this by finding trading and crossing opportunities that would otherwise be missed. It monitors live and historical client trading activity, watch lists, shareholdings and other trader defined data sources. It then presents the trader with an optimum list of opportunities that can be fulfilled via telephone or digital outreach. This means that users can identify and, crucially, act upon trading opportunities for their clients, which helps achieve the best possible execution outcomes whilst also helping mitigate unnecessary exchange fees.

Prospector was launched last year as part of Fidessa's Optimized Trading initiative. This strategy is focused on the next generation of sales traders and allowing them to deliver value added services in a highly efficient manner. All these tools are fully integrated within Fidessa's order management system.

James Blackburn, Global Head of Equities Product Marketing for Fidessa, commented: "In today’s complex trading environment, sales traders need to be able to find liquidity in an efficient and timely manner, particularly when handling large client orders. This means bringing together the right information, and making it available in the right way, so that traders can act fast to deliver the very best execution service to their clients. Prospector provides them with an innovative means of uncovering trading and crossing opportunities, right on their desktop. We are delighted to receive another award, as it underlines the value that market participants see in Prospector, in particular the clear and powerful competitive differentiation it delivers."

This month, AllthatSoft, a leading mobile security solution provider, with headquarter in San Francisco, introduces AppServo™, its novel mobile app protection solution. As a progressive technology supplier, the company participates in RSA Conference 2017, the world’s leading information security conference, and demonstrates its advanced mobile app code protection solution.

Mobile applications are fast revolutionizing the way people do financial transactions and have become an important part of business for financial institutions. Effective and secure mobile app protections are highly associated with return on investment and repeated customer traffic.

AppServo™ offers specialized solutions for mobile applications such as mobile payment and mobile banking.

“We are very delighted that AppServo™ has finally become commercially available, bringing an unmatched security solution to app driven financial services and banking. With the release of the AppServo™ 1.0 which includes Self-Randomization on app codes along with code-splitting technology supported by exclusively recognized intellectual properties worldwide, as well as key features such as packing & anti-analysis obfuscation tools, we will continue to demonstrate our innovation & dedication to helping safer connected IoT communities & our industrial customers significantly enhance the security level of their mobile gateway transactions,” said Sunny Lee, Chief Operating Officer & Co-founder.