Emerging Markets Payments (EMP), the leading electronic payments processing company in the Middle East and Africa (MEA), has announced the signing of an exclusive technology and center of excellence partnership with Afghanistan Payments Systems (APS), the local domestic payment card switch in Afghanistan.

The agreement will allow EMP to work with all Afghan banks in partnership with APS, providing fast, reliable and secure electronic payment card processing for ATMs, POS and remote card not present (CNP) transactions such as bill payments and recurring payments.

"Afghanistan is a country of immense potential,” said Paul Edwards, Executive Chairman of EMP. “With sound infrastructure and growing demand for payment solutions, the Afghan market represents a remarkable opportunity. As we develop close ties with our local partners, EMP will showcase its skills as an industry leader to help move the country towards a more financially diverse and customer-centric payments environment.”

According to media reports, http://betterthancash.org/news-releases/government-of-afghanistan-joins-better-than-cash-alliance/ by the end of 2012 more than 70 percent of Afghan government employees received their salaries electronically compared to just 1 percent in 2006. Although fewer than 5 percent of Afghans have bank accounts, approximately 65 percent have mobile phones and nearly 90 percent of the population lives in areas with mobile network coverage, so there is great potential for new payment methods.

“At APS, we view our partnership with EMP as a strategic step towards offering the Afghan market cutting-edge payment processing solutions,” said Zaheer Bawar, Managing Director of APS. “At APS, we are working relentlessly to ensure that we operate in accordance with the highest international standards for the industry. We believe our partnership with EMP will enable us to go to market faster and will also provide our client banks in Afghanistan with access to high-quality services and state-of-the-art solutions.”

EMP is expanding quickly across the wider MEA region, having opened its first branch in Nairobi, Kenya in June of this year to join the company’s offices in Cairo, Egypt; Amman, Jordan; Lagos, Nigeria; Dubai, UAE; Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa. The smart card processing pioneer serves 130 banks across MEA and has grown in tandem with the electronic payments industry, which is still in the emergent stage across much of the region.

EMP offers an innovative and wide scope of products for banks, merchants and government including advisory services, mobile payment, bill presentment and payments among many others. The company most recently launched the cutting-edge bill presentment program with the Central Bank of Jordan known as eFawateerCom at a press conference hosted at Cards and Payments Middle East in Dubai, UAE.

TMF Custom House Fund Services, a leading provider of financial services to the alternative investment sector, has announced that it is now offering clients a depositary lite, or ‘Depo Lite,’ platform to support alternative investment managers marketing their funds in Europe to fulfill their AIFMD requirements. This Depo Lite service will conduct cash-flow monitoring and general oversight requirements to a manager and all relevant funds.

The new offering is an extension of TMF Custom House’s existing regulation and compliance offerings. Depo Lite is applicable to managers in two scenarios

-          When they are domiciled in an EEA country, do not require full authorization but market fund shares or units in any EEA country, or

-          When they are domiciled outside the EEA but market fund shares or units into specified EEA countries that have included a Depo Lite requirement in revised private placement regimes. To date four countries have done this, includingGermany and France, and others are likely to follow suit over time.

“We offer a comprehensive range of Depo Lite services to meet clients’ requirements,” said Mark Hedderman, CEO, TMF Custom House, “and our team is committed to making delivery of the Depo Lite solution as seamless as possible."

“TMF Custom House has always been focused on investors and the investor experience on behalf of fund managers, said Dermot Mockler, Group Head of Regulatory Affairs, Compliance & Anti Money Laundering. “This offering will allow our client managers to concentrate on their core investment activities, while ensuring that they are fully compliant with the AIFMD regulations.”

TMF Custom House is also preparing to launch another service related to the AIFMD Directive, where it will assist client managers with extensive reporting obligations, known as Annex IV Reporting. The company is engaging with service providers with a view to rolling out a substantive solution in the 4th quarter 2014.

Misys, the leading financial software provider, has launched Misys Connect, a suite of programmes to deliver value from every part of the business to its clients.

Providing a seamless integrated customer experience, Misys Connect enables clients to drive return on investment and competitive advantage. At its core are a set of programmes each making it easier for clients to derive value from their relationship with Misys, in addition to its software and services.

Misys Connect comprises six categories giving customers direct access and links to the cross-functional teams and expertise they need to maintain competitive edge. Each category contains three value-added programmes which help clients derive the most benefit from Misys.

1. Strategic Advantage: Providing clients with access to the people, resources and capabilities necessary to help achieve growth and achieve competitive advantage. Dr. Burkhard Schäpers, Head of Investment Banking IT Portigon Financial Services, comments, “Our involvement in user groups is helping us to drive a stronger collaboration between Misys and its clients, our industry peers. This will help us shape the Misys product roadmap and ultimately drive further strategic advantage.”

2. Technological Edge: Ensuring Misys’ software products match customers’ business needs and that Misys delivers new, genuinely innovative customer-centric products and services.

3. Accelerated Deployment: Delivering the services required to ensure rapid deployment, fast time-to-value, seamless integration and positive user adoption for all Misys solutions. 2

“The Misys Service Delivery Centre provided the best resource possible to help ensure our project success,” states Pitkänen Tarja, Vice President, Pohjola Bank, on one of the programmes within this category. “We worked together as one team and this helped us achieve an effective solution delivery.”

4. Proactive Support: Providing the fast, effective, interactive support essential to the ongoing success of each client’s business and to its future growth. Lav Kataria, Chief Operating Officer, Saudi Hollandi Bank, adds, “We’ve received excellent proactive support from the Customer Advocate at Misys, as well as the On-Demand Support capabilities. All of this has significantly contributed to our overall project success.”

5. Enhanced Dialogue: Offering unlimited possibilities to interact with industry peers and Misys colleagues, share experience and skills, and help maximise the benefits of Misys software.

6. Return on Reputation: Helping Misys clients to build, enhance and continuously develop their reputation as market-leading, customer-focused financial services organisations. “By partnering with Misys on the Return on Reputation programmes, we have been able to showcase our industry leadership and demonstrate ROI,” comments Hendrik Pothof, Manager, Lending Services Value Chain Design & Support, ING Commercial Banking.

“The customer experience is entwined tightly with the organisation and its employees. Appropriate alignment, understanding, empowerment and motivation are company prerequisites for customer engagement to be positive,” states Ed Thompson, VP Distinguished Analyst, Gartner in the October 3, 2013 report, Understanding How Customer Engagement Drives a Positive Customer Experience. He further recommends, “Deliver the experience. Today's IT skills and technologies are only part of what you need to deliver a satisfying customer experience. This must be an integrated enterprise effort encompassing an ensemble of diverse organisational elements.”

“Adding real value is the key factor in ensuring a continuous positive experience,” comments Nadeem Syed, CEO of Misys. “The resulting strong and long-term partnership Misys Connect generates ensures we continue to support our customers as they grow and adapt to 3

changing market demands. We look forward to more clients joining Misys Connect and gaining more value from a deeper relationship with us.”

Fidessa group plc (LSE: FDSA) has  announced that it has expanded the service it offers its UK broker clients with the addition of Alliance News, a new journalistic news service targeted at UK companies, investors and their advisors. Covering all UK listed companies, Alliance News delivers both breadth and depth of coverage including smaller and AIM-listed companies, as well as providing general, global economic content.

James Blackburn, Global Head of Equities Product Marketing at Fidessa, comments: "Fidessa prides itself on offering its clients quality, value and choice, particularly when it comes to content in support of their trading activities. We regularly review the service that we offer and take into account requests and feedback we receive from our users. Alliance News offers a cost-effective service providing concise news alerts followed by succinct journalist-written articles which address the broadening needs that many of our UK clients have raised with us."

Founded in 2013, Alliance News is formed of a seasoned team that brings over 50 years of financial news and technology experience.

"As established people from the industry, we’ve experienced first-hand what works and what doesn’t", adds Tom Waite, CEO of Alliance News. "There is a lot of business news around, but much of it is of little use at the point of trade. We aim to uncover news, check the facts and publish our alerts as fast as possible – it’s all about speed and accuracy. We are delighted to be working with Fidessa, and pleased to be able to offer our new service to its UK community."

Fidessa's products serve around 24,500 users across 1,000 clients globally and are used by 85% of tier-one financial institutions.

smartTrade Technologies  releases  new version of its Order Management System (OMS) and adoption by clients in Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific. smartTrade clients have optimised their trading flow by using smartTrade OMS to handle client orders more efficiently across multiple desks, internalise client flows and improve their proprietary hedging strategies. All desks involved in the trading chain can utilize the tool, making sure that any team members can service the client orders instantly from anywhere in the world.

smartTrade OMS allows clients to implement custom strategies across a large number of orders. It is an end-to-end solution that supports both e-orders and manual trading books. It is easy to integrate smartTrade OMS with external systems such as Single Dealer Platforms, existing liquidity feeds and existing front-ends. The latest release includes the externalisation of orders for management by algos and support for custom order types. A comprehensive set of rules for order routing to traders (manual desks) and algos (e-desks) has now been incorporated. Sales desks can use the OMS front-end, the API or an Excel spreadsheet to interact with the OMS. smartTrade offers a highly competitive pricing model, as well as the option to host the solution in the smartTrade private cloud.

A global tier 1 bank highlighted the openness and flexibility of the OMS, stating that “in addition to offering advanced controls, the cross-asset technology enables us to future proof our investment.” A broker client in Europe added “among all the solutions we evaluated, smartTrade OMS is the most feature rich and easiest to integrate into existing environment.”

David Vincent, Chief Executive Officer of smartTrade Technologies, comments “We work closely with our clients to continuously improve our solution. The latest version of smartTrade OMS brings best-in-class functionality, whilst ensuring it continues to integrate well with other smartTrade and Client trading system components. The solution is designed for both global institutions and regional players.” David Vincent concludes, “The openness of our solution, together with the intuitive GUI, using the HTML5 framework and the cross-asset nature of our underlying components, sets us apart in the industry.”

Nigel Gurney was appointed Chief Financial Officer in July 2014.  He is a qualified chartered accountant with 20 years’ experience in the financial services, wholesale distribution and telecommunications industries.  He was previously Chief Financial Officer at Lepe Partners LLP, a specialist independent banking company, prior to which he was Chief Financial Officer of Merchant Securities Group plc and Chief Financial Officer of W.H. Ireland Group plc.

Nigel Gurney, CFO comments: “I am delighted to be joining Lombard Risk at this time and to be part of a team that has achieved demonstrable growth over the last number of years.  Having previously worked in the regulated sector I appreciate the benefits that Lombard Risk’s suite of products brings to financial institutions in this evolving regulatory landscape.  I look forward to assisting the continued development of the company at a time of substantial opportunity for Lombard Risk and its products.”

Chief Executive Officer, John Wisbey, commented on the results:

“I would like to welcome Nigel Gurney to the Board on behalf of myself and my fellow directors.  We are confident that the experience he brings to the Board will be an asset to the company.  He brings with him both good knowledge of AIM from his time as CFO of WH Ireland, and very relevant knowledge of part of the market space in which our regulatory compliance business operates.”

Bravura Solutions Pty Limited (Bravura) has announced the appointment of a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

Martin Deda has been appointed to the CFO role, reporting directly to Bravura’s global Chief Executive Officer, Tony Klim.  He will also serve as an Executive Director on the Board of Bravura.

Klim said: “We are delighted to welcome Martin to the company and the Executive team. With more than 19 years’ experience in senior finance and operations roles, predominately within the IT and professional services industry sectors, his extensive knowledge and expertise will be a valuable addition to our growing organisation.”

Deda’s most recent position was as Chief Operating Officer (COO) / CFO for leading regional law firm Minter Ellison. In this role, he had overall responsibility for the firm’s financial and management accounting and reporting, tax, treasury, commercial and bid support, facilities management, IT infrastructure, applications and support, and corporate/office services.

Prior to joining Minter Ellison, Deda had built a long and successful career in numerous finance positions. In July 2008, he was appointed CFO of iSOFT Ltd, an ASX200 listed global Healthcare IT provider. This role included responsibility for tax, treasury, financial and management accounting and reporting, investor relations, company secretarial, commercial, M&A and bid & contract management.

Previous to this, Deda served as regional COO / CFO with CSC for Central and Eastern Europe, and he also held senior finance and operations roles at TNT and StorageTek in EMEA. At CSC and StorageTek, he was a key member of highly effective management teams that significantly improved the performance of these businesses. This was preceded by eight years of management consulting experience at PA Consulting Group, leading projects in Australia, UK, Netherlands and Germany, focusing primarily on M&A, performance improvement and re-engineering.

Commenting on his new role, Deda remarked: “Given the strong global interest Bravura is experiencing for its wealth management and life insurance applications, this is an exciting time to join the company and play a role in its future growth and development. I look forward to applying my finance skills and international experience, as well as my deep expertise in technology services, to continuously improving the performance of the business.”

Deda studied Economics and Accounting at the University of Western Australia and at the Australian National University. He has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Science from the University of New South Wales. He is a Certified Practicing Accountant (FCPA, Australia) and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).

Deda will officially commence his role on 22 September 2014.

NY Mellon, a global leader in investment management and investment services, has signed a trade processing partnership with Helaba (Landesbank Hessen-Thuringen) and the G25, a group which represents the 25 largest Sparkassen in Germany.

Helping Helaba and the Sparkassen attract new trade flows to Germany, BNY Mellon will act as a business entry point for small and medium sized German enterprises seeking to trade with the Asia-Pacific region (APAC). BNY Mellon will promote the partners' brands in APAC via BNY Mellon's correspondent banking network, and in return, Helaba and the Sparkassen will route letters of credit from German importers via BNY Mellon's branch network.

"This agreement strengthens Helaba's position as a trade finance partner," said Klaus-Jorg Mulfinger, designated management board member of Helaba who is also responsible for business conducted with the Sparkassen. "With export flows on the rise, the Sparkassen need to provide adequate trade finance support to their corporate clients. Helaba is committed to helping the Sparkassen meet these client needs by providing an extensive array of trade finance products, buyer credit and forfaiting, and the assumption of bank and country risk."

"The G25 Sparkassen and Helaba are proud of this strong partnership regarding the important trade finance and letter of credit business," said Josef Hastrich, Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Kreissparkasse Koln. "This agreement will offer new opportunities for the German Sparkassen Finanzgruppe to expand globally and will significantly complement the global performance of the Landesbanken. We'd also welcome other Sparkassen who would like to participate in the partnership. The German Sparkassen are the most important partners for the Mittelstand in Germany and we are looking forward to extending this partnership to the international trade finance business."

"This deal helps connect the famed Mittelstand with the fastest growing region in the world," said Ian Stewart, Chief Executive Officer, Treasury Services at BNY Mellon. "We will provide a common solution for Helaba and Germany's Sparkassen which will give them access to our network of correspondent banks in APAC. Helaba and the Sparkassen will be able to leverage our strong brand presence in Asia where we have been based for over half a century. This, in turn, will help German companies drive export growth into new and exciting markets."

The German Sparkassen and Landesbanken are one of the largest banking groups in the world and have over 15,000 branch offices throughout Germany. BNY Mellon already delivers a range of solutions to Germany's Sparkassen and has acted as one of their partner banks since almost 50 years.

SunGard, one of the world’s leading software and technology services companies, has ranked first on the Selling Power 50 Best Companies to Sell For list. Each year, the corporate research team at Selling Power magazine assembles and publishes its list of the 50 Best Companies to Sell For. The list has appeared in the magazine for 14 consecutive years and SunGard was ranked No. 1 on the list in 2013 and 2014, tying with Heartland Payment Systems this year.

Participating companies were evaluated on customer growth and retention; hiring, compensation, sales training and enablement; and company recognition and reputation. The list includes companies of all industries and sizes, with sales forces ranging from fewer than 100 salespeople to companies with sales force numbers in the thousands. 

Jim Neve, senior vice president of sales and marketing operations at SunGard, said, “We’re thrilled to once again be named the best company to sell for by Selling Power magazine. It shows that SunGard’s investment in a strategic approach to training, tools, incentives and career development of our sales staff is a winning combination, enabling us to serve our customers to the best of our ability.”

In addition to a comprehensive sales training and coaching program, SunGard fosters an entrepreneurial spirit within its sales team through ample career advancement and leadership development opportunities, competitive compensation packages, commission incentives and bonuses, and a number of other benefits.

Gerhard Gschwandtner, Selling Power magazine’s founder and publisher, says the companies on the list excel by supporting salespeople via coaching, training and offering sales-enablement solutions; keeping salespeople motivated; and creating an active selling culture. 

Emerging Markets Payments Limited (EMP) has announced the official opening of its new office in the UAE. Located in Dubai, the office will strengthen EMP’s presence in the UAE as well as supporting its expansion across the entire Arab Gulf Area. “EMP is proud to have been a leader in the development of the electronic payments industry across Africa for over a decade,” said Paul Edwards, Executive Chairman of EMP. “It initially operated under the name Mediterranean Smart Cards Company (MSCC) before becoming part of the EMP Group in 2010. In 2011 we acquired Visa Jordan, which opened up the Levant region. We believe that our expansion into the Arab Gulf Area is an important strategic step for our business, given the sophisticated financial services sector in the region and the willingness to adopt the latest electronic payments technologies.” Edwards pointed out that EMP operates across all links in the electronic payments chain and currently serves 130 banks and 30,000 retailers across 49 countries in MEA. According to Naeem Kola, EMP’s Chief Financial Officer, in addition to serving as EMP’s processing hub for the region, the Dubai operation will also house the company’s International Disaster Recovery (IDR) site. The IDR site is a state-of-the-art facility which will ensure that EMP’s customers will enjoy the highest levels of service availability. “In addition to its acquiring, issuing and switching business, EMP offers an innovative and wide wide of products for banks, merchants and governments which include advisory services, data analytics, credit scoring, collections, mobile payments and electronic bill presentment and payment among many others ” said Kola.