TS Imagine, the leading global, cross-asset provider of trading, portfolio, and risk management solutions for sophisticated investors and their teams, today announces it has successfully connected with Crypto Finance, the European prime broker for digital assets, to offer institutional clients greater connectivity and liquidity in cryptocurrency trading. With this partnership, TS Imagine’s clients will be able to access Crypto Finance’s advanced trading infrastructure and comprehensive cryptocurrency market coverage.

"At TS Imagine, we have a proven track record of providing exceptional service to Swiss private banks across various asset classes, and we are excited to expand our connectivity through this collaboration.” said Alexandre Carteau, Head of Corporate Development and Digital Assets at TS Imagine.

“As more sophisticated investors and their teams continue to seek exposure to cryptocurrencies, we are proud to offer a deep, liquid connection network to this exciting and emerging asset class. Adding Crypto Finance as a regulated crypto destination for our clients demonstrates our commitment to meeting the evolving needs of our institutional clients" he added.

Patrick Heusser, CCO at Crypto Finance commented “We are thrilled to announce our partnership with TS Imagine, a well-respected and widely recognized name in the industry. Together, we are committed to delivering a streamlined and unparalleled trading experience for digital assets. This collaboration between Crypto Finance and TS Imagine represents a significant step forward in the evolution of the digital asset space, and we look forward to providing our clients with innovative solutions that meet their evolving needs.”

OneID, the identity service provider, has today announced the appointment of Paula Sussex as CEO who will lead the firm through its next period of expansion. OneID has recently signed deals with NatWest, JCB Finance, DocuSign and Intesi, which enables Adobe Acrobat Sign.

Most recently Paula was CEO for the Student Loans Company. Described by McKinsey in 2016 as “a medium-sized retail bank”, the SLC is a government-owned company that manages a loan book of some £200bn and supports some 6m customers.

With a background in blue chip consulting and technology services businesses, Paula was Senior Vice President and member of the UK Board at CGI, responsible for building new markets in health and public sector with end-to-end profit and loss responsibility for a £400m per annum business unit. Prior to that, she was CEO of Atos Consulting and a Managing Consultant at KPMG.

Paula qualified as a barrister before turning to the tech world.  She was awarded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours list.

Paula will take over from Martin Wilson who led the company through its build and early growth period.  Martin will resume his position as non-executive director on the OneID board.

Richard Little, chairman of OneID, commented: “We are delighted to welcome Paula to the OneID team. Paula has an excellent track record in both public and private sectors and leads with energy, drive and passion. She brings a strong commercial mindset to the role.”

“As an investor in the business, Martin originally joined the Board as a non-executive director before stepping into the CEO position to lead it through its formative years. He has built the OneID platform and legal framework and OneID was the first to be accredited by DCMS as a Digital ID provider, orchestrator and scheme. The service is fully operational with the capability to verify identities of c50m UK citizens. The partnership with NatWest marks a major landmark in the company’s development. The time is now right to bring in a CEO to lead the company through our next growth phase. I am truly grateful for Martin’s contribution and very pleased that he will return to his non-executive director role and help drive OneID’s success.”

Paula Sussex, CEO of OneID, commented: “There is growing recognition that identity technology can help solve huge commercial and social issues such as fraud, compliance and cost of securing data in a business. OneID tackles all of these issues and I’m delighted to be joining at such an exciting time. I look forward to working with the excellent OneID team and board to continue its expansion and enable businesses and consumers to operate online safely and securely.”

Martin Wilson, Non-Executive Director at OneID commented: “During my time leading OneID, the business has laid down solid foundations, including FCA certification, joining BACS’ list of direct debit verification providers and our partnership with NatWest. I am proud that we now have household names onboard who we are helping to thrive by improving their customers’ experience and protecting them and their customers from online fraud. We are truly making the world a safer place. I look forward to working with Paula as we enter this next stage in our evolution.”

Younited, a leading European instant credit provider, has joined forces with Tink, Europe’s leading open banking platform, for accurate affordability assessments. This partnership enables Younited to deploy instant credit to more consumers and businesses in Europe. 

By using Tink’s data aggregation and pan-European connectivity, Younited receives customers' up-to-date financial data within seconds and processes credit applications instantly. This enables Younited to feed relevant data into its own high-end AI-based algorithms to compute a holistic, accurate and up-to-date view of applicants’ spending habits and income streams – enabling a streamlined and accurate affordability assessment with an instant decision.

Traditionally, credit applications can take days and sometimes even weeks to process, leaving applicants in the dark when a quick decision is needed most. Younited, with the support of Tink’s products, are tackling this outdated process head-on, using years of local and international experience as well as deep risk assessment knowledge. 

Data-driven lending processes not only simplify affordability assessments, but by using bank account data to get a more rounded view of an applicant’s finances, it also makes sure better credit can be offered to customers, by being more accurate, inclusive and fair. Moreover, the usage of open banking connectivity allows a much simpler experience for the customers, with fewer documents to share and a much faster process overall.

For more than a decade, Younited has been transforming the credit industry, to make it more simple, innovative and transparent. Operating in five countries (France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Germany), Younited has pioneered new disruptive technologies, such as applying open banking to credit decisioning, making lives easier for consumers, banks, fintechs and merchants.

Camille de Mari, Director France, Banking & Lending at Tink, commented: “Having a full and up-to-date picture of someone’s financial situation is crucial when it comes to making an accurate credit risk assessment. With capabilities made possible by open banking, our open banking connectivity across Europe means Younited can instantly access up-to-date transaction data, ensuring that they can give their customers access to the financial services they deserve, at speed.”

François de Bodinat, CPO at Younited, added: “Anyone seeking credit, whether for a loan or a retail purchase, deserves an ultra fast and hassle-free experience. Thanks to open banking capabilities and our partnership with Tink, we are now able to deliver this promise of instant credit decisions at scale – a first in Europe. We’re already serving more than a million customers, and together with Tink, we will expand our services across Europe, continuing our mission of  changing the future of  lending for the better.”

The collaboration between Younited and Tink is also expanding to offer financial coaching. By using the same open banking data that supports Younited’s lending decision, customers can instantly access Younited Coach offering them free personalised analysis of their financial situation as well as tips and recommendations to help them manage their overall budget more effectively.

Melbourne-based personal financial management and data-sharing app diñeiro has selected Envestnet®|Yodlee® to supply live financial data and analytics so mortgage brokers can understand a borrower’s full financial position seamlessly via the consumer app.  

As a technology innovator in the mortgage industry, the diñeiro app has been purpose-built to leverage both the open banking framework under Australia’s Consumer Data Right (CDR), and third-party data providers, to allow consumers to link their bank accounts, credit cards, loans, superannuation, insurance, motor vehicles and residential property into one single digital platform.

For brokers, a connected dashboard reports on income by source, categorised expenses and shows transactions for linked bank accounts.  This enables mortgage brokers to quickly and easily see up-to-date financial information required for responsible lending standards.  Moreover, if the client’s property search is lengthy, or the loan approval process becomes drawn-out, the app keeps this information current and accessible, so it is easy to update the lender and obtain any necessary reapprovals. 

Benjamin Shapira, Founder of diñeiro, said: “In a broker industry first, diñeiro’s technology makes it really easy for a borrower to aggregate their financial position and share this data with their broker in a single click.  Brokers can also white label the app, so it’s customised with their logo and branding.” 

CDR gives bank customers the right to share their banking data between service providers of their choosing, in order to support consumer choice, confidence and convenience.  Envestnet | Yodlee is an Accredited Data Recipient able to supply both CDR and non-CDR data sets to the financial services and fintech markets in Australia. 

Carol Kierans, Senior Customer Success Manager A/NZ at Envestnet | Yodlee said: “We’re thrilled to be working with diñeiro to help mortgage brokers and their clients save time and hassle by linking financial data into a single source.  When borrowers share information manually, brokers only get a snapshot of their clients’ finances, whereas with diñeiro they can have ongoing access to near real-time data plus analytics.”

Having ongoing visibility of a client’s financial position, via the diñeiro dashboard, brokers can nurture first-time home buyers via goal setting.  Additionally, through diñeiro, brokers can see the equity in their clients’ property portfolios and reach out at the right time with information about refinancing.

“With over 70% of new home loans originating from mortgage brokers, the role of brokers as trusted advisors continues to gain momentum and with that comes increased expectations from clients about the service they receive from brokers,” said Mr Shapira.  “Underpinned by Envestnet | Yodlee's data aggregation capability, diñeiro's platform ensures brokers are well placed to enhance their value proposition to borrowers.” 

Embedded finance provider, Sonovate, has partnered with global HR platform, Deel, to support its customers with on-demand, scalable funding solutions as they expand overseas. 

The partnership will see Sonovate become the sole funder on Deel’s Marketplace, and its embedded finance solutions will be integral to helping Deel’s customers to fund and place candidates globally efficiently and seamlessly. 

Deel is a global payroll solution which helps businesses - including Nike, Revolut, and Shopify, hire anyone, anywhere as independent contractors or full-time employees, compliantly and in minutes. The availability of Sonovate’s funding solutions on the Deel Marketplace will give Deel’s customer base access to scalable invoice financing solutions needed to fund payroll whenever needed, enabling them to expand faster and better manage cash flow. On the other hand, it will offer Sonovate customers the ability to place talent faster around the world through Deel’s platform.  

The combination of Deel’s Employer of Record service and Sonovate’s multi-currency, embedded finance solution will drive efficiencies for recruiters, providing a fast, holistic HR and funding solution that allows for frictionless expansion into new territories. The solution is also available to customers looking to grow operations domestically. 

Richard Prime, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Sonovate: “This partnership marks yet another step change for us, as Sonovate evolves our service to better support larger recruiters and consultancies who want to expand overseas. Deel’s global platform empowers us to offer our services to more organisations that place workers across the globe, propelling us forward on our mission to fund the future of work. Sonovate customers can now place contractors in more jurisdictions than ever before, with Deel providing access to more than 150 countries, including all of the major markets. 

“The values of our two organisations are aligned - both companies are fully committed to providing industry-leading products and world-class service to our respective customers, giving them the tools they need to thrive and grow in a global economy. The partnership is the natural next step on this mission, and we are looking forward to seeing businesses around the world benefit as a result.” 

Dan Westgarth, COO at Deel, comments: “This partnership allows us to provide our customers with even more of the tools that they need to scale globally and at pace. With any growing business, managing a changing cash flow - particularly in multiple currencies - can be challenging and is commonly cited as a key barrier to growth. Bringing Sonovate on board changes this for our customers, and gives them access to the scalable, flexible funding they need to regulate cash flow and accelerate growth, be that domestically or overseas.” 

The world’s longest-running cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp today announced an extended partnership with Copper, the institutional gateway for digital asset investment, to integrate with its ClearLoop network. The partnership will give institutions access to off-exchange settlement and market-first trust documentation - built to mitigate exchange counterparty and insolvency risks.

The ‘off-exchange’ settlement network will now enable institutional clients to trade with Bitstamp without needing to move assets from Copper’s custodial environment.

Bitstamp has been partnered with Copper since 2021 as part of its set-up to secure digital assets across multiple 3^rd party custodians. Joining the ClearLoop network will represent a significant step for both companies, as market infrastructure providers will collaborate to serve a heightened focus on counterparty risk management in the wake of recent market events.

The partnership further demonstrates Bitstamp’s commitment to its customers, that are placing a premium on asset security. As market infrastructure matures, Bitstamp continues to expand its offering to provide customers with safeguarding options through the integration with off-exchange solutions like Copper’s ClearLoop.

The announcement comes just one week after Bitstamp retained its position as the Number 1 rated centralised exchange on CCData’s (formerly CryptoCompare) Exchange Benchmark, which is a cornerstone of the industry, and maintaining the only AA rating.

The Bitstamp group has so far secured 51 licenses and registrations globally making Bitstamp one of the most secure and compliant trading venues on the market.

Jean-Baptiste Graftieaux, Global CEO of Bitstamp, said: “We’re very pleased to be deepening our partnership with Copper by joining the ClearLoop network. This move speaks to our focus on delivering for our institutional clients as well as our confidence in the robust architecture provided by Copper.

“We already know that institutional clients come to us because of our extremely strong record on compliance and regulation, but we know that the optionality we provide means we confidently deliver the risk management solutions they require.

“The combination of our compliance heritage, continually expanding global licensing credentials and work with our off-exchange settlement network and banking partners means we provide a unique level of security and choice to meet the evolving needs of institutions seeking to trade in crypto.”

Dmitry Tokarev, CEO of Copper said: “Allowing clients to trade on exchanges direct from Copper custody is an important step in institutionalizing the digital asset markets. More than ever, it’s essential that custodians and exchanges work together to effectively address primary risks such as exchange-counterparty risk. We’re thrilled to partner with Bitstamp, to bring off-exchange settlement to their institutional clients while furthering our shared commitment to asset security, and setting higher standards for the crypto industry.”

Josh Gibson, Global Head of Exchanges at GSR on ClearLoop: “The ClearLoop solution is an example of maturing crypto market infrastructure that addresses issues of counterparty risk and improves operational efficiency. We are excited to see these continued developments as more institutional players enter the digital asset space.”

SteelEye and Enfusion have established a partnership to offer joint clients a seamless experience, with trade and order data from Enfusion’s investment management solutions flowing automatically into SteelEye’s integrated compliance platform.

Traditionally, the implementation of trade-based compliance systems for surveillance, reporting, and best execution is lengthy and complex. The partnership between SteelEye and Enfusion takes the legwork out of implementing these systems and makes the process seamless. As a result, the onboarding of SteelEye is speedy with minimal effort from investment managers.

This was a key driver for Alken Asset Management selecting SteelEye and Enfusion. 

“As we were diversifying our internal trading and compliance systems, we were looking for tools that would make the migration smooth and easy – and this is what we received with SteelEye and Enfusion. In fact, Alken Asset Management’s data was flowing from Enfusion into SteelEye’s UAT environment before we had even initiated the onboarding kick-off call,” said Divesh Patel - Operations Manager at Alken Asset Management.

“We decided to join forces with Enfusion to deliver additional value to our joint clients. The technical partnership goes a long way to address the pains of onboarding trading and compliance systems. In addition, joint clients get seamless access to SteelEye’s Integrated Surveillance tools which include archiving and communications monitoring – enabling them to do more with less,” added Matt Smith, CEO of SteelEye.

Also commenting on the announcement, Peter Salvage, Managing Director, Global Head of Channel & Alliance Partnerships at Enfusion, said: “We are delighted that Alken Asset Management selected Enfusion and SteelEye. The Enfusion and SteelEye partnership is a powerful solution for investment managers looking for a state-of-the-art OEMS and portfolio management solution that includes advanced surveillance capabilities.”

Dialect Communications, a Business Process Outsource (BPO) that offers customer experience (CX) solutions for Fintechs, is partnering with Paynetics, one of Europe’s leading providers of embedded finance and digital banking, to provide world-class customer engagement services for both the UK and European markets. The partnership will support the FCA’s new consumer duty requirements to deliver clear customer communication and support. 

Dialect is supporting Paynetics through the provision of a fully outsourced customer experience solution designed to meet the ever-increasing needs of customers across Europe. Support is provided via Dialect’s state-of-the-art cloud-based technology, enabling a fully blended customer experience across voice, email, and chat and beyond, delivering a seamless omnichannel solution. 

The Dialect and Paynetics partnership recognises the growing importance of customer support in providing regulated products and the demands for a multi-channel approach to customer engagement. Paynetics helps its clients to introduce new financial products using its industry-leading embedded finance platform with multiple entry points across card issuing and acquiring, IBAN accounts, and bank transfers. A key element of the overall proposition is to support timely and comprehensive customer engagement.

Neil Wake, CEO at Dialect, said: “Dialect is delighted to work with Paynetics in this new partnership. Paynetics is a leader in payments that has a great business model focused on designing and offering digital banking solutions. Dialect is thrilled to form this relationship that will bring value to both companies. We are excited about this partnership and looking forward to working with them in close collaboration.“

Mike Peplow, CEO at Paynetics UK, added: “We are pleased to be working with Dialect, who are leaders in the provision of customer engagement for regulated financial products. This partnership recognises the growing importance of timely, knowledgeable and appropriate customer engagement as a key part of delivering a firm’s Consumer Duty obligations. Working with Dialect allows Paynetics and our Program Manager partners to consistently deliver high-quality customer engagement on a 365, 24/7 basis across the UK and Europe.”

Finastra, a global provider of financial software applications and marketplaces, today announced its partnership with Corvallis, Tinexta Group, a leading IT provider in the Italian financial services sector, to support Italian banks with their digital transformation journeys. With Finastra’s Essence, a SaaS solution deployed on the cloud via Microsoft Azure, Corvallis’ customers can upgrade their business models, embrace new innovations and adapt quickly to their customers’ demands.  

“Cloud adoption is becoming increasingly significant in Italy for all financial institutions,” said Roberto Casalini, Digital Tech Business Line Director at Corvallis. “This is bringing greater efficiencies and flexibility to the sector, enabling banks to scale as required, optimize resources and enhance security. Deploying Essence will give them the ability to quickly transform their operations at a reduced cost, while providing their customers with the end-to-end, personalized and seamless experiences they expect. Above all, Finastra will help our customers achieve success, today, tomorrow and always.” 

Essence is a cloud-first, next-generation digital banking solution that combines sophisticated functionality and advanced technology to increase enterprise agility, reduce costs and improve operational efficiency. Powered by open architecture and integrated with FusionFabric.cloud, Essence's rich, broad and deep retail and commercial banking functionality enables institutions to rapidly deploy market-leading products and services. Banks can also tap into Finastra’s Retail Analytics, a module that delivers a 360° view and turns raw data into actionable insights. Corvallis provides implementation expertise and complementary solutions, such as for anti-money laundering (AML), payment and settlement, and fraud management. 

“The Italian financial services marketplace is unique, so we needed a partner with strong knowledge of local banking processes and regulations alongside deep expertise in implementation and delivery,” said Saraswathy Parthasarathy, COO, Universal Banking at Finastra. “Collaborating with trusted and experienced partners is integral for Finastra’s growth and success. With more than 30 years of experience in supporting Italian financial institutions, we believe that Corvallis has the skillset required to deliver our solution to a wider pool of Italian banks, through a smooth and seamless customer experience.” 

Finastra and Corvallis’ first mutual customer went live in March 2023.  

ChatGPT is still far from replacing the average financial data analyst, and although powerful, it is limited in its purpose and design even after the introduction of GPT-4 architecture. This is according to Julius Černiauskas, CEO of Oxylabs.

According to McKinsey's The State of AI in 2022 report, the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has more than doubled since 2017, with up to 60% of organisations using it in at least one business area. IDC estimates that global spending on AI will reach £154 billion in 2023 (26.9% up YoY). However, despite the hype, only 20% of companies including FinTech’s currently use AI technologies in a core business process or at scale. High costs and low precision are the main reasons the wider adoption of AI is still lacking. 

“GPT-4 has its merits, being a generative AI model learning from specific data, building on it and offering new content, but it is not generic AI. Based on this architecture, ChatGPT mainly processes textual and, to some extent, visual information, delivering textual outputs”, said Černiauskas. “However, one can’t upload an Excel with thousands or millions of financial data points to ChatGPT and expect it to analyse the information. It cannot collect data directly or interact with company dashboards or data systems and is not designed for accurate and comprehensive business data analysis”.

ChatGPT can summarise large amounts of textual information and offer generalised insights or examples which might be helpful for data professionals. This includes advising on KPIs, solving common coding issues, and writing SQL codes or mathematical formulas. However, the chatbot does not take into account changing circumstances that surround a particular company or financial data it is asked to process because it has a limited context window. 

Černiauskas continued, “GPT-4 is an outstanding creation, but still reflects the common drawbacks of AI. Almost every AI system today is built on Machine Learning (ML) technology, and the main limitation of any ML model is its complete dependency on the training data. For instance, in comparison to Microsoft Bing, ChatGPT doesn't process real-time data from the internet, functioning on a massive but limited dataset that must be constantly updated. As such, it can miss new data or not process it well and suffer from biases and human errors. 

The OpenAI chatbot knows more than any human but is limited when processing anything that doesn't fit into its pre-made logic. According to this OpenAI technical report, the latest model can still suffer from hallucinating facts and does not learn from experience.

Černiauskas concluded, “Chatting with ChatGPT might be absorbingly real, but so are the limitations of the virtual brains and their potential to fully take over data collection and analytics. This might change, but current generic and generative AI models have very low precision in narrow use cases. Financial organisations may solve the problem by using specific techniques, but they can be incredibly data-greedy, with organisations rarely having enough datasets to achieve near-human cognition and accuracy".