The Investing and Saving Alliance (TISA), the cross-industry financial services membership body, today announced two changes within the senior management of the business.

Larry Banda becomes the CEO of TISA’s Commercial Board. Larry has been on TISA’s Corporate Board since 2015 and became Deputy Chair in 2020. He has supported TISA’s Executive team meetings as a Board representative and been actively engaged in TISA’s work on Later Life Lending and Personalised Guidance. In addition, Larry will continue with his non-executive director role as Deputy Chair, but will now also serve as an Executive Director in the new part-time role as CEO of the Commercial Board.

Harry Weber-Brown, CEO of TISA Digital, is leaving his role after a transformative five years at the company and moving to a FinTech.  At TISA, Harry coordinated efforts including the creation of a single, reusable Digital ID for financial services as well as vital digital workstreams such as the Open Savings, Investments and Pensions (OSIP) project and the implementation of smart data.

All projects remain key areas of focus for TISA and transition plans have been implemented for the efficient and smooth continuation of TISA-led efforts.

Tony Stenning, Chairman of TISA, said: “We are pleased to announce the appointment of Larry Banda as CEO of the TISA Commercial Board. Larry has been an active board member of TISA for nearly eight years, and his deep industry expertise and insights will provide valuable guidance and leadership to our expanding commercial activities. This is set to be a crucial year in the completion of several TISA initiatives and we are delighted to have secured the services of someone with Larry’s outstanding capabilities.

“We are of course saddened by Harry’s departure and grateful for all the work he has contributed, and he leaves with our gratitude and thanks. His projects remain core to TISA’s efforts to build industry-wide digital projects to benefit consumers and we will be announcing detailed transition plans in due course.”

Larry Banda, Deputy Chair of TISA and CEO of the TISA Commercial Board, said: “Working with TISA has been a great pleasure over recent years, and I am honoured to have been asked to take on the role of CEO of TISA Commercial and help fulfil its potential.”

“I am looking forward to an expanded role and new chapter with Carol and the TISA team having already had 8 highly enjoyable and rewarding years on the main TISA Board.”

The Chief Executive of the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), Ian Johnston, has been appointed as the Vice Chair of the Africa and Middle East Regional Committee (AMERC) and so, a board member of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). IOSCO is the global standard-setter for securities regulation.

IOSCO's AMERC brings together 42 financial market regulators of the region to discuss, exchange information and promote issues specific to capital market development and regulation.

The election of Ian Johnston as the Vice Chair of the AMERC recognises the DFSA’s achievements and its continued commitment to international cooperation and global standards of regulation.

Commenting on the appointment, Ian Johnston said: “I am delighted to be appointed as the Vice Chair of IOSCO’s AMERC committee and look forward to working with members to promote the highest standards of regulation and governance for the world’s securities markets. The DFSA strives to apply world-class regulation in the DIFC, cementing its reputation as a leading international financial centre. This appointment reaffirms our commitment to high-quality regulation in line with international standards."

Ian previously served as the Chairman of the Joint Forum comprising representatives of IOSCO, the Basel Committee, and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS).

MyShubhLife, India's leading digital lending and full-stack financial service platform, and EasyPay the Digital Banking platform for the MSME sector in India, have partnered to offer a line of credit to EasyPay merchants. The collaboration will allow MyShubhLife to utilize its technology and quick processes to tap into the EasyPay customer base and enable quick loan disbursals. 

EasyPay and MyShubhLife are dedicated to meeting customers' unmet credit needs and providing them with a hassle-free digital borrowing experience while promoting the Digital Bharat and financial inclusion agendas. The partnership intends to serve the unorganized domestic retail sector. Easy Pay, an app that serves as a one-stop shop for all MSMEs' financial needs, serves over 18000 pin codes across the country. Through this collaboration, MyShubhLife will provide formal credit to this large MSME segment. 

MyShubhLife has an innovative and robust technology platform that uses data analytics and AI to provide several customized products to its clients based on their working capital requirements. Speaking on the partnership, Monish Anand, CEO, MyShubhLife, said, "Raising capital has been a difficult task for small and medium businesses in India. The last two years have served as a reminder of the credit gap that exists in India's MSMEs sector. Our credit model and advanced analytics are designed to meet the financing needs of MSMEs or industry segments that have traditionally been excluded from the formal financial system due to issues such as a lack of documentation or poor credit history."

"Our collaboration with EasyPay will help us democratize credit in India by providing accessible and responsible credit to the vast & unorganized segment. We are very excited about the many possibilities this alliance offers," he adds. 

Commenting on the partnership, Vaibhav Joshi – CEO, EasyPay, said, "Our collaboration with MyShubhLife is an important step toward realizing our vision of bringing digital credit to a billion phones and creating a more inclusive financial system in India. With MyShubhLife, we are committed to leveraging our technology and expertise to close the credit gap and provide small businesses with the financial tools they need to succeed in today's digital economy. Easy Pay aims to be the #1 preferred choice in the next two years with a merchant community of over 2.5 million."

Since its inception, MyShubhLife has been a frontrunner in achieving 100 per cent digital inclusion in India and actively taking initiatives to that end. MyShubhLife recently partnered with MobiKwik, extending credit to 134 million MobiKwik users.  

Besides credit solutions, MyShubhLife has built a complete range of sachet-sized financial products such as SIPs, E-Gold, Insurance, Bill Payments, E-filing taxes etc., to provide more contextual offerings to its customers, the next half-billion segment. 

Ledgible Crypto Tax & Accounting is proud to announce the release of its latest product features, aimed at streamlining the process of NFT tracking and accounting. The development team has been hard at work building and supporting tools for the NFT and DeFi space in a way that gives users the support they need to effectively manage their digital assets. The new features are designed to meet the growing demands of the rapidly evolving NFT market and will provide a comprehensive solution for NFT holders and traders alike.

The highlight of the new features is the automatic tracking of NFT activity in all major Ethereum NFT token standards, including ERC1155, which represents 75% of all NFTs in the market. Ledgible’s new product tracks cost basis, collection and token ID, image, date, and acquisition information for each NFT, providing a complete picture of an NFT portfolio. This will help NFT holders and traders to have a better understanding of their NFT holdings and their value over time.

The new rollout allows for direct API connection, or users can also opt for manual import, including through inputting the read-only wallet address. The new product is designed to be user-friendly, and even those who are new to the NFT market can quickly get started.

With the Ethereum blockchain accounting for 75% of the NFT market share and $36 billion in NFT sales to date, Ledgible’s new offering is well-positioned to provide valuable support to the NFT community. It will help NFT holders and traders to keep track of their holdings and ensure that they are well-equipped to meet the tax and accounting requirements of the NFT market.

We understand the importance of having reliable and up-to-date information for your crypto and NFT assets and our team is dedicated to providing our users with the best possible experience. Whether you are a seasoned crypto investor or just starting out, Ledgible is the go-to solution for all of your crypto tax and accounting needs.

In conclusion, Ledgible Crypto Tax & Accounting continues to lead the charge in the crypto and NFT space with its innovative platform and unparalleled customer support. We are confident that our new product features will further enhance the user experience and provide the tools necessary for anyone to effectively manage their digital assets.

Adyen, the global financial technology platform of choice for leading businesses, has been announced as the exclusive payment solution partner of FC Bayern Munich. Adyen will handle the club's payment processing across all sales channels.

Adyen continuously helps to empower businesses to achieve their ambitions faster. The German club has a global fan base. Now, thanks to Adyen's technology, FC Bayern can accept payments on any device anywhere, offering fans the payment methods they value and trust.

Adyen’s payment services will be used across all functions at FC Bayern Munich including: The purchase of merchandise at the fan-shop, club memberships, and tickets at the Allianz Arena. With the use of Adyen's newest mobile point-of-sale terminal, the AMS1 model, long queues at the arena’s fan-shop checkout can be avoided as staff can accept payments from anywhere in the store. By unifying sales channels, the club can now create seamless and consistent customer journeys which will make fans' lives easier.

Andreas Jung, FC Bayern Executive Board Member: “With Adyen as the official partner of FC Bayern Munich, we are assured that the high standards set on the pitch by our team will be carried over into our payments processing. We are constantly looking into how we can improve our processes for the fans and streamlining the payments process is a key part of this.”

"We want to support FC Bayern Munich in delivering customer-centric experiences that keep the focus on the sport and the team, with payments running smoothly in the background," said Hella Fuhrmann, Country Manager DACH at Adyen. "Whether buying a jersey online, or in the club shop, fans at home will have the same experience as those in the stadium. Ultimately we are trying to improve the overall experience of Bayen fans by making their payment experience smoother.”

American Express is expanding its decades-long relationship with Microsoft to develop a suite of solutions built on Microsoft Cloud and AI technologies focused on reducing business travel friction for employees and businesses.

The first solution developed through this collaboration will enhance the expense management process by addressing some of the pain points business travelers and expense processors face.

Using AI and machine learning capabilities, the solution will bolster clients’ existing processes and tools by simplifying and automating manual expense reporting and approvals, enhancing audit efficacy, and streamlining reconciliation and reimbursements for accounting teams. Microsoft will pilot the solution with its employees, by integrating it into the company’s internal expense system later this year. The solution will be made available to other American Express Corporate clients over time, with the ability to integrate into other expense management tools.

This is how the solution will work: When a business traveler swipes their American Express Corporate Card, they’ll be prompted to upload a picture of their receipt. An AI-powered decision engine then categorizes the transaction and assigns a risk score based on transaction details, the company’s travel and expense (T&E) policy, and the traveler’s purchase and payment history on their American Express Corporate Card. The risk score is coded as green (recommended for auto-approval), yellow (needs another look), or red (not recommended for approval) depending on factors like company expense policy, consistency with existing spend patterns, indications of fraud, and more. The information is then passed to an expense management system, along with receipt details to auto-generate reports and help managers and auditors in their decision making. Through machine learning the solution will get smarter over time, adapting its algorithms based on patterns and gradually increasing its ability to maximize expense auto-approval with lower error rates and escalations.

“Expense reports are a necessity, but we all hate doing them. At the same time, every company has an increased need for control and compliance with expenses. Now imagine a future where the majority of your expenses are simply ‘auto-submitted’ and ‘auto-approved,’ requiring no manual intervention and adhering to your companies’ policies and spend limits. By combining our customer insights and data, purposeful technology innovation, and a collaboration with an industry leader like Microsoft, we are creating a solution that addresses these needs with a seamless experience for the employee,” said Gunther Bright, Executive Vice President, Global Commercial Services at American Express.

“Advanced technologies like Microsoft Azure AI and machine learning provide powerful, new opportunities to reimagine pervasive, time-consuming manual processes,” said Bill Borden, Corporate Vice President, Worldwide Financial Services at Microsoft. “We look forward to collaborating with American Express to simplify expense management and deliver intelligent digital capabilities to improve the lives of business travelers and employees.”

Expense Management Sentiment Revealed in New American Express Trendex Survey:

According to a new American Express Expense Management Trendex survey, which polled business travelers and travel expense processors, the expense management process is a major pain point today that needs to be updated.

Four-in-ten business travelers say they would rather have a performance review (41%), weekly meetings on Monday at 8 a.m. (40%), their flight delayed by an hour (40%), or a full day of virtual meetings (40%) than have to complete their expense reports. Additionally, 59% of travel expense processors, who don’t currently have a completely autonomous expense report management system, say the greatest benefit to having a more automated expense report management system would be saving time, and 94% of all travel expense processors agree there needs to be more innovation, signaling the need for more automated solutions.

Other key findings from the Trendex include:

The majority (73%) of business travelers agree that business travel would be less stressful if managing expenses was less of a hassle.
More than half (52%) of business travelers and over one-third (35%) of travel expense processors report a negative reaction when describing their employer’s current expense management process.
Business travelers say their most common (54%) pain point associated with expense reports is the gathering and keeping track of receipts.

The most common pain points for travel expense processors are employees missing submission deadlines (50%) and ensuring expenses comply with company travel policy (49%).
60% of business travelers agree their least favorite part of business travel is completing/ turning in their expenses.
Most business travelers (76%) spend at least 30 minutes on their monthly travel expense reports and, on average, two-thirds (65%) of travel expense processors take at least one hour to review one monthly expense report, signaling the need for efficient time management solutions.

Among the travel expense processors who don’t currently have completely automated expense report management systems, nearly all (95%) wish they did.
The new solution is part of American Express’ ongoing work to redefine the end-to-end payments experience globally, both for travelers and companies. For more information about American Express’ existing business travel and expense management solutions for Corporate clients, please visit here. 

Eton Solutions, developer of the cloud-based AtlasFive® enterprise resource platform (ERP) for the family office of the future, today announced the launch of its Administrative Family Office solution and the establishment of its international headquarters in Singapore.

Eton Solutions' international headquarters in Singapore will enable the organisation to streamline its access and support to international markets without relying on North American resources. The international headquarters will focus on serving all markets outside the Americas, including Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

Eton Solutions Administrative Family Office™ (AFO) is a wealth management technology platform that harnesses the power of the company's cutting-edge AtlasFive® software and award-winning service offerings into a single solution thereby democratising access to the technology used by some of the largest family offices in the world.  

Family offices can thrive within a reliable operating environment to steward wealth across generations with exciting investment opportunities, international connectivity, high standards of living, and robust tax and regulatory regimes – making Singapore a nexus of the global family office industry.

The establishment of Eton Solutions' international headquarters in Singapore comes at a time when family offices in the island-state are growing rapidly due to the country's emergence as a global financial centre. Based on estimates from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, there were about 700 Family Offices at the end of 2021, almost double the 2020 year-end figure of 400. This makes Singapore an attractive hub for executing international and regional operations.

Leveraging Eton Solutions' suite of services, family offices no longer need to outsource their middle and back-office operations to different providers because the AFO™ creates an entirely digital and integrated client-centric experience from investment reporting to accounting and document management to tax support services.

Eton Solutions, Executive Chairman, Satyen Patel said: "Singapore has become a major destination for family offices globally. Its geo-proximity to over half of the world’s ultra-high-net-worth individuals, and connectivity and working relationships with the major economic powerhouses of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and the Indian sub-continent makes it a prime location for us to serve international markets."

The Sella group closed 2022 with very positive results and further growth. The good performance covered all business sectors and confirmed the effectiveness of the strategy based on a diversified business model focused on the quality of personal relationships, technological and digital innovation and the fostering of an open financial ecosystem to provide effective answers to customers' needs and have a positive impact on both the economy and the community.

In such an uncertain and complex external scenario - due to international tensions, inflationary pressure and the dynamics of interest rates - thanks to the appropriate management of risk profiles, the Group achieved its best-ever net banking income result, with growth in almost all components, while strengthening its capital soundness. Testifying to the confidence of customers, their overall number increased, and market shares grew further. Below are the main results for the year.

Results as at December 31 2022, approved by the Boards of Directors of the parent company Banca Sella Holding, the company issuing financial instruments widely distributed among the public Banca Sella and the other Group companies, closed with an overall net profit of € 91.9 million. The result is up, compared to € 56 million in the same period of the previous year, net of non-recurring items. In 2021, due to the capital gain obtained from the strategic joint venture transaction in Hype with illimity bank, the net profit totalled € 108.3 million.

The net banking income increased by € 130.1 million (+17.9%) to € 857.9 million. In detail, the net interest income increased by 42.6% to € 358.6 million, resulting from both the sales component and the positive effect of inflation-indexed securities. Net income from services increased by 4.7% to € 406.7 million. The net result from financial activities increased by 5.2% to € 92.6 million, due to the positive results of proprietary trading and the sale of tax receivables.

Global inflows at market value amounted to € 48.7 billion, down 1.1% due to the market downturn, which led to a € 4.1 billion decrease in the value of securities prices. Against this backdrop, customer confidence led to an excellent net inflows result of € 3.75 billion. Direct inflows grew by 4.9% to  

€ 16.7 billion. Loans to support the activities of households and businesses grew by 8.5% to € 10.6 billion.

Traditional and new business sectors

All sectors in which the Group engages and the good balance of revenue sources resulting from its growth and development strategy contributed to the good results for 2022. In particular, finance and investment banking increased their margins by 37%. Net inflows in advisory and asset management grew by € 1.6 billion with assets under management amounting to € 21.2 billion. Revenues from investment services amounted to € 180 million, slightly down (-2%), despite the strong tensions in the financial markets.

The growth in payment systems was significant: total transacted volumes related to acquiring and issuing services increased by 29%, with an 18.8% increase in the net banking income to €120 million. These volumes are also the result of the increase in POS (+36%) and e-commerce (+11%) transactions. 

Revenues from new businesses, which started in 2018 as part of the strategic plans of the Group, rose by 3.6% to € 73.3 million, mainly due to open payment and platform services, corporate and investment banking and technology solutions provided to third-party companies.

The total number of customers of the Group further increased by 7% to € 1.2 million, net of Hype, including which the increase rose by 9% to € 2.8 million.

Investments in support of the Strategic plan amounted to € 82 million, net of the real estate component. To support effectively the several development initiatives and the increase in staff, operating costs rose by 12.4%. Despite these major investments, the cost-to-income ratio improved dropping to 71.6 % (it was 75.2 %).

The Group confirmed its high capital strength, well above the required standards. The Cet1 ratio stood at 13.21% and the Total Capital Ratio at 15.12% (they were 12.28% and 14.19%).

The SaaS platform has grown explosively in two years, helping over 20,000 engineering leaders and developers drive productivity and improve the developer experience

California, US | Engineering analytics platform Hatica today announced US$3.7 million in seed funding led by Surge, Sequoia Capital India and Southeast Asia’s rapid scale-up program. The round included participation from existing investor Kae Capital and from engineering leaders from Google, Uber, Twitter, Okta and Notion as angel investors.

Ex-Uber engineers Naomi Chopra (CEO) and Haritabh Singh (CTO) are on a mission to boost productivity and enhance the overall experience for 30 million developers globally and address the multi-trillion dollar problem owing to inefficiencies in the software development process.

The rise of distributed teams amidst remote and hybrid working environments, coupled with SaaS sprawl, has made it challenging for engineering leaders and managers today to uncover inefficiencies in the development lifecycle. Ensuring alignment of effort with business goals and protecting developer wellbeing has thus been a persistent and growing challenge. However, SaaS startup Hatica has become the respite for more than 20,000 developers and engineering leaders in solving such productivity and alignment issues.

“We aim to build Hatica as the daily landing app for every engineering leader to get to the heart of what they can do to help their engineers do their best work,” said Naomi Chopra, co-founder & CEO of Hatica.

As engineering teams use dozens of developer tools and rely on manager 1-on-1s, standups, long team meetings and unscheduled catch-ups to align on project progress and discuss blockers, it is extremely challenging for engineering leaders to identify the root cause of developer toil and loss in productivity.

Hatica streamlines this process as the only engineering analytics platform that provides an end-to-end view of software development workflows. It is built on the principles of modern productivity frameworks, like SPACE framework by Github and Microsoft, to deliver accurate metrics across three well-known pillars of developer productivity: velocity, alignment and wellbeing.

It integrates and communicates with all the tools that developers use daily, such as Github, JIRA, CI/CD systems, along with incident management and collaboration apps. Engineering leaders benefit from data-driven management by leveraging these combined insights to uncover bottlenecks, allocate resources efficiently and preempt team burnout.

Hatica’s platform has been making a significant impact on its customers’ value stream and delivery lifecycle. For example, a real estate technology company saw an increase of 55% in maker time (uninterrupted time to code) and adopted a streamlined async approach to remote engineering operations. Another technology company, a social media platform, saw a 50% reduction in cycle time (time to production) by addressing workflow bottlenecks.

Naomi Chopra, co-founder and CEO of Hatica added, “Developers are depending on more and more tools to get their work done while engineering costs are burgeoning, making the developer experience and productivity a critical problem to solve for organisations globally. With Hatica, we've embarked a mission to equip engineering leaders with crucial and actionable insights to help them build effective and happy engineering teams. We'll be utilising the fresh funds to double down on hiring and expand the Hatica team globally to fuel our next phase of growth”.

Bibby Financial Services’s (“BFS”) asset finance division, Bibby Leasing, has announced a series of new hires and a refocused growth strategy to increase lending throughout the UK.

With over 50 years’ combined experience in asset finance, the new team will support the business’s strategy, led by Managing Director, Sean Neville.

Speaking of the business’s ambitious plans, Sean Neville, Managing Director of Bibby Leasing said: “As a business, we’re in a fantastic position to support UK SMEs in 2023 and beyond. We have a refocused strategy designed to bolster our support for brokers, build new vendor partnerships and to uncover new opportunities by working more closely with colleagues across Bibby Financial Services to develop ABL transactions.

“The depth and breadth of experience of our new team, combined with our existing asset finance expertise is testament to our growth strategy, which saw us almost double new business volumes in 2022 alongside 20 percent growth in our portfolio during in the same period.”

Sean Taylor joins as Head of National Broker Sales from Renaissance Asset Finance where he was Senior Corporate Sales Executive. With over 16 years’ experience in asset finance, Sean has held sales roles with Five Arrows Business Finance and State Securities.

James Pegler joins as Senior Risk Manager - Specialised and Structured Transactions. He previously held underwriting, credit and client-facing roles at Renaissance Asset Finance, Shawbrook Bank and Barclays UK.

Jonathan Sollitt has held credit and underwriting positions with CSI Leasing Europe and HSBC, and joins Bibby Leasing as Credit Manager.

Lauren Davis, joins as Manager for Bibby Leasing’s newly created Sales Support team from Renaissance Asset Finance where she spent almost seven years developing such a unit.  

The new hires follow the appointment of Brian Cartwright as Director of Strategic Partnerships & Market Expansion last year and the return of Rebekah Middleton as Head of Corporate & Structured Transactions, after almost two years with Time Finance.

Sean Neville added: “This is a really exciting time for Bibby Leasing and the wider Bibby Financial Services family. We have highly experienced people, a great range of products to support SMEs and brokers, and are well positioned for growth.”

BFS supports nearly 8,500 SME clients globally through its asset finance and invoice finance solutions. In addition, its product range includes Foreign Exchange, Export and Trade Finance, as well as specialist finance for the construction sector.