Image source: https://pixabay.com/photos/refinery-oil-industry-gas-3613526/

Crude oil trading is often volatile but remains one of the more popular trading options thanks to the massive fluctuations in its supply and demand. This volatility means that smart traders stand to gain a lot from choosing the right moment to invest and knowing when to pull back and sell. If you’re looking at crude oil trading, here are some things to be aware of as we head into a new year of trading. 

Crude Oil Price in 2022

In the past 12 months, countries worldwide have seen significant economic and political upheavals that have resulted in major shifts in the price of crude oil. This is in part due to the impact of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, which resulted in global prices soaring to around $120 a barrel in May 2022. This wasn’t to last, however, as the price stabilised shortly after, falling to the 90s in September where it has since fluctuated to slightly higher levels than in the months leading up to its meteoric rise.

Traders using a crude oil trading platform would have seen huge gains by selling between April and June, with their profits falling off towards the end of the year as the price fell back to hover at the $80 a barrel mark.

A Closer Look at the Middle-East

After years of back-and-forth, Lebanon and Israel finally resolved their maritime border dispute late in 2022. As a result, Lebanon is pushing ahead with its gas exploration plans. Should their environmental impact studies be completed timeously, drilling may start later in the year. Israel also signed off on an energy exploration deal off the coast of Morocco, further cementing the Israel-Morocco relationship.

While some countries look for new sources of oil, China looks to improve its refining capacity and its relationship with Saudi Arabia with the finalising of a deal for the construction of a Saudi-state-owned petrochemical complex in China. This deal provides the cornerstone of several other agreements between the two countries. China also signed a major gas deal with Qatar, which will see Qatar provide it with 4 million tons of liquefied natural gas annually for the next 27 years. This is on top of a deal that Qatar signed with Germany, which will see the mostly Russian-oil-dependent country start to receive Qatari oil from 2026.  

The Shift Towards Renewable Energy

As the price of crude oil soared to almost record levels, many countries sought to strengthen their move towards renewable energy. Solar energy production, in particular, should see a steep rise in the years to come as countries attempt to reduce their gas and oil dependence. Despite their investment in the petrochemical plant in China, Saudi Arabia made big moves in this sector, announcing plans for the building of both a solar plant and a wind project as well as the building of a green hydrogen plant.

What Does That Mean For Oil and Gas?

Despite the move towards renewable energy options, Qatari leadership still stands firmly behind crude oil, encouraging investment in gas and oil throughout the year and the increased demand will see more gas and oil mining than ever before. While this does not bode well for the environment, it is perhaps encouraging that much of the funds for investment in green energy will also come from profits made due to the fluctuations in the crude oil price. In September 2022, after announcing record profits over the past eight years, BP revealed plans to dedicate an additional 10% of its total spending on low-carbon energy in 2025 and then to 50% by 2030. However, the road to reliance on renewable forms of energy is a long one, and many market experts expect the price of oil to continue to remain solid for now.

What Does This Mean for Traders?

In the short-term, reliance on crude oil will continue to drive prices up, which should net traders a healthy profit if they choose to invest at the right time. The start of the year saw oil trading around the $80 a barrel point, this despite OPEC+’s decision to cut production of 2 million barrels of oil per day from October to December in an attempt to maintain the high prices of oil. Should OPEC+ feel the need to implement more production cuts following their next meeting in February 2023, the oil price could stand to rise once more, meaning good news for investors who choose to capitalise on the current state of the market.     

Thanks to its volatility, investing in crude oil continues to present a significant risk to investors. However, savvy traders can mitigate these risks using different strategies, and oil remains a decent diversification option for traders with a finger on the pulse of the markets who are willing to take a chance on big profits. 

Ledgible, the leading institutional and enterprise crypto tax and accounting platform, today announced the company added two new strategic executives, Paul Diegelman as Chief Revenue Officer, and Will Coleman as Head of Institutional Product. This expands Ledgible's Institutional leadership with these two seasoned experts and underscores Ledgible's commitment to Institutional and Enterprise digital asset tax and accounting professionals.

As more enterprises and institutions enter the crypto asset space, traditional financial tools for tax and accounting are necessary to track and manage these digital assets. Coupled with the introduction of new regulations and guidance, there is significant demand for Ledgible, its crypto experts, and its accounting and tax platform technology. Ledgible is the platform to bridge the gap between digital assets and traditional finance.

"Recently we announced our first round of funding to expand our Professional Tax and Enterprise and Institutional Accounting teams to support an expanding number of institutional partners and accounting firms requiring expertise in the digital asset space," said Kell Canty, CEO of Ledgible. "Today, we are introducing new executives and underscoring our commitment to service institutions with our crypto accounting solutions."

Paul Diegelman joins as the first Chief Revenue Officer from Fiserv, where he most recently served as Vice President, Head of BD and Partnerships for Data and Connectivity. He has decades of expertise in open banking, connected data, digital payments, financial services, and SaaS platforms. As a sales leader, Paul builds and leads teams, envisions and launches products, and delivers successful revenue growth.

Will Coleman joins as the Head of Institutional Product. He was the principal architect of attest services to support cryptocurrency investment funds for Cohen & Company, the largest auditor of cryptocurrency investment funds in the U.S. He was also co-lead for the first collateralized stablecoin attest and technical lead for operation control reviews including SOC, due diligence and others for various digital asset custodians and blockchain service providers.

The Ledgible Crypto Tax and Accounting Platform for tax and accounting professionals, enterprises, and institutions supports integrations across major blockchains, cryptocurrency exchanges, wallets, and professional accounting tools. As the bridge between crypto assets and traditional financial accounting, Ledgible determines crypto tax liabilities and delivers that data to existing and novel TradFi accounting tools. The platform makes crypto data, Ledgible, across the entire crypto vertical, for institutions, enterprises, and large accounting firms.

The Evident AI Index, the first Index to track companies on their artificial intelligence (AI) maturity, launches today. 

Evident, a strategic benchmarking and intelligence company, has released its inaugural Index, the first ‘outside-in’ assessment of the 23 largest banks in North America and Europe on their overall level of AI readiness.

“Banks are increasingly focused on AI to drive their competitive advantage — with a direct impact on their speed to market, cost advantage and ability to assess, analyse and react to information when making decisions on everything from fraud to market trading,” said Alexandra Mousavizadeh, Evident Co-Founder and CEO. “As the real-world application of AI accelerates at astonishing speed, we believe that this transformation is too important — for managers, for investors, for society at large — to be happening in a darkened room. Our Index measures the race to banking AI maturity in a way that brings transparency to the top of the agenda.” 

The Evident AI Index, which is available now at evidentinsights.com, offers a unique “outside-in” assessment based on millions of public data points. The volume of data, and the range of sources analysed, has enabled Evident to build a more complete and rich assessment of corporate AI readiness. Crucially, the Evident AI Index provides an unbiased and independent profile of each bank’s AI maturity, without resting on proprietary surveys that suffer from self-reported biases.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Tops Inaugural Evident Index

JPMorgan Chase & Co. led banks in the inaugural Evident AI Index, leading on all pillars, scoring 63% of the available points. The bank is joined in the top five by Royal Bank of Canada, Citi, UBS, and Wells Fargo.

North American banks are typically ahead of European counterparts in building AI capability, occupying 7 out of the top 10 rankings in the Index. Three European banks make it into the top ten, with strong performances from UBS, ING and BNP Paribas. 

North America’s strong performance was bolstered by Canadian banks that have shown a high commitment to AI maturity. RBC secured the second slot in the Evident Index, due to its early focus on building AI transparency, as well as its commitment to innovation. Strong performances from the two Canadian banks RBC and Toronto-Dominion Bank (ranked 2nd and 6th) may also be reflective of the Canadian government’s focus on the technology: Canada was the first country in the world to publish an AI strategy in 2016. 

“JPMorgan Chase’s dominance is due to a long-term commitment to AI at the most senior levels backed up by significant and sustained investment in talent and research. They have adopted an approach taken by tech firms, establishing research and R&D units, and creating an attractive environment for industry-leading talent,” said Annabel Ayles, Evident Co-Founder and COO. “In contrast, many European banks don’t seem to have demonstrated the ambition and sustained investment of the largest North American banks.”

“At JPMorgan Chase, we have focused on AI – talent, technology, data –  for almost a decade with tremendous benefits for the firm. Our AI teams have contributed top-quality novel research and compelling solutions to many business use cases. Evident’s Index on AI provides valuable insights and aims to bring a level of transparency that will be good for banks and vital for public understanding of the opportunities created by AI."

Jamie Dimon, Chairman & CEO, JPMorgan Chase & Co

Comprehensive Insights To Cut Through The AI Noise

Evident was created to bring transparency and openness to AI implementation across the business world. The company recently secured $3 million in funding from leading VCs and angel investors, including Venrex Investment Management (an early backer of Revolut, Charlotte Tilbury, and data businesses such as WatchKeeper and 365 Scores), Scott Galloway, NYU Professor and co-host of Pivot podcast, Robin Saunders, CEO, Clearbrook Capital, David Brierwood, former COO of MSCI, Dimitri Goulandris, CEO, Cycladic and Gary Ginsberg, former Executive Vice President Time Warner.

“This is the year of AI, and we are seeing a rapid rise in AI use in almost every single sector. As the market begins to discern winners from losers based on their capability in AI, robust metrics and insight become key to stakeholder value. Evident is uniquely placed to provide that clarity.”

Scott Galloway, NYU Professor and Co-host of Pivot podcast

Building The World’s First AI Index for Business

The Evident AI Index’s proprietary methodology was developed with input from more than 50 leading AI and banking experts. Each bank is ranked and assessed on 143 individual indicators to assess four key critical capability areas with assigned weights of (40%, 30%, 15% and 15% respectively):

-        Talent | measures the number and experience of AI and data employees stated as working at each bank, as well as the visible initiatives underway to hire, retain and develop leading AI talent

-        Innovation | measures the steps banks are taking to drive innovation across the bank, covering academic research and patents, investments in technology and AI-first companies, as well as broader engagement in the open source ecosystem

-        Leadership | measures the public communications of company and group-level leadership, including the existence of a public AI narrative across group-level investor materials, press releases and media

-        Transparency | measures the extent to which banks are publicly communicating a wide range of responsible AI activities and making visible their efforts to create AI-specific controls

“Our work has only just begun,” adds Ayles. “Through our Index — and eventually, Indices — we aim to help companies across several sectors accelerate value, benefit customers, and fundamentally capture the enormous opportunity and mitigate the risks that AI will introduce.”

Evident will update the Index in September 2023 to incorporate additional global banks and new pillars, before expanding across sectors. Evident aims to grow its coverage to more than 1,000 companies across a range of sectors. Alongside the Index, Evident produces high-frequency data trackers and research to monitor emerging trends around AI adoption in the financial services sector.

“Organisations like Evident have a vital role to play in helping banks and the wider financial services ecosystem to look beyond the AI hype machine, avoid wastage and bad investments and focus their efforts on the areas where successful AI deployment will mean pronounced benefits for their organisations, for their customers."

Mattias Fras, Head of AI Hub, Nordea

“For traditional banks, getting AI right is an existential issue, which is why investment - in talent and R&D, as well as real-world commercial AI deployment - is soaring. But as the pace of AI adoption accelerates, greater transparency around how major banking institutions are using AI is necessary to ensure that the result is a race to the top. Critically, we must ensure that the application of AI does not lead to unforeseen negative consequences in an industry that touches all of our lives."

Kay Firth-Butterfield, Head of AI and Machine Learning, World Economic Forum

Foro, a Charlotte-based fintech startup, today emerged from stealth mode with the national launch of its digital commercial lending platform. Foro’s platform guides business owners through the complex commercial lending process and introduces them to financial institutions that fit their capital needs, while providing those same financial institutions with verified, high-quality leads that meet their lending strategies and goals. Backed by business pioneers including former Bank of America CEO and Chairman Hugh McColl Jr., Foro emerges at a critical time as both business owners and lenders look to maintain the flow of commercial loans despite an uncertain economy.

For most small to mid-size businesses, finding any commercial lending partner – much less one that’s a good fit for their capital needs – is time-consuming and complicated, driven by an antiquated, relationship-based model. The initial vetting and discovery process can take as long as 30 days, as many businesses struggle to tell their story effectively while financial institutions are left to filter through thousands of applications, the vast majority of which they have no interest in lending to. Even if a business successfully completes an application and is approved, it can take an additional 75-100 days for funds to hit their account.

Built by a team with decades of experience across technology, finance, and commercial lending, Foro removes the guesswork from this process entirely. The platform fosters connections between businesses and lenders based solely on fit – all while cutting the initial discovery period from 30 days down to just 7:

• First, business owners looking to secure capital fill out a simple, guided business profile that focuses on the specific questions lenders initially want answered.
• That business profile is then anonymized (removing the possibility of any biased outcomes) and routed for potential match to various lenders including banks, credit unions, and alternative lenders.
• In as little as 48 hours, business owners are presented with a list of lenders that have expressed interest in connecting, enabling the business to choose between multiple financial partners.

Throughout the entire process – from the initial application to signing the term sheet – Foro’s team of advisors are available as an objective resource to help borrowers see around corners, prepare them for meetings, review terms, and more. The result is a significantly faster and more informed commercial lending process that mutually benefits both borrowers and lenders.

“Even during economic uncertainty, capital is always available – everything just gets a little tighter. Lenders become more selective with their loans, and business owners become more conservative, seeking guidance on who to approach and how to best tell their story in order to secure the funding they need,” said Dave Godsman, CEO of Foro. “By using Foro, businesses can secure capital more efficiently and with more support than the current model, while lenders can access a pre-screened pool of businesses that already fit their lending parameters. The fact that we’re emerging now, in an unpredictable market, is not a coincidence — our platform delivers a more streamlined and objective process for commercial lending at a time when it’s needed the most.”

Foro also addresses some of the inherent inequities that have plagued the industry for decades. Previous studies have shown that after controlling for creditworthiness and other characteristics, minority-owned businesses, particularly Black-owned businesses, are more likely to receive loan denials and higher interest rates for accepted loans. The anonymous nature of Foro’s platform ensures that borrowers are judged solely on the merits of their business and nothing more, while also providing guidance to those who may not have the prior knowledge and experience needed to navigate the commercial lending process effectively.

“The goal of increasing access to capital, particularly for business owners in underserved communities, is what sets Foro apart,” said Hugh McColl Jr., Foro founding investor and former Bank of America CEO and Chairman. “They’ve built a platform that streamlines the loan process and enhances lending strategies for financial institutions, and provides all business owners with the opportunities, tools, and confidence they need to grow their business.”

Foro launches with $8M in previously unannounced funding through a Series A round led by TTV Capital, with participation from Fin Capital, Correlation Ventures, and AME Cloud Ventures, among others. Today, Foro is available for commercial use. To learn more about how Foro can support your capital needs or to experience the modernized commercial lending process for yourself, visit Foro.io.

IDnow, a leading identity-proofing platform provider in Europe, welcomes Bertrand Bouteloup to the management team as its new Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). Based in France, he will assume the group-wide commercial end-to-end responsibility.

For the last six years, Bertrand held the position of Vice President of Sales at ARIADNEXT, the French market leader for identity proofing, which was acquired by IDnow in June 2021. Prior to that, Bertrand was Global Director of the Cybersecurity Business Unit at Capgemini, then European Director of Security Services at Unisys, and Managing Director of 8-i, a consulting and integration company. He will be employing his more than 15 years of management experience in the IT industry in his new role as CCO of IDnow.

Bertrand’s previous position of Vice President of Sales within the IDnow group will be filled by Cyril Patou, who most recently held the position of Regional Director for France, Alps and Southern Europe at Clear Skye. Cyril has over six years of experience in the digital identity sector, having worked for One Identity and Ping Identity in France.

Commenting on his appointment, Bertrand said: “I am delighted to be taking on this new challenge within the IDnow group and to drive our revenue targets in 2023 and beyond. As a group, we want to continue to grow closer together and leverage our expertise in the German and French markets across borders. One of my priorities will be to bring the different commercial teams closer together, and harmonize targets and processes even further.”

“I have known Bertrand for several years now and I look forward to continuing to work with him in his new role as Chief Commercial Officer. His many years of managerial experience in the identity verification and cybersecurity industry, coupled with his understanding of our company values and his vision for our future with a strategic and business-led approach, means that he is the perfect match for this role,” added Andreas Bodczek, CEO of IDnow.

CellPoint Digital, the global leader in Payment Orchestration, announces they will be partnering with MikroElektronika (MIKROE), a leading manufacturer and retailer of hardware and software tools for developing embedded systems to deliver a full suite of payment orchestration solutions.

MIKROE – who recently celebrated its 21^st birthday - is headquartered in Belgrade, Serbia’s best known for software products mikroC, mikroBasic and mikroPascal compilers for programming microcontrollers.

The focus of the new relationship between MIKROE and CellPoint will reduce the risk of a huge volume of cross-border payments and exposure to increased currency fluctuations through MiIKROE’s worldwide distributor network across all continents and in addition to more than 50 local distributors.

Commenting on the announcement, Greg Worch, Global, Head of Revenue, said: “Businesses across all sectors are recognising the need for Payment Orchestration to enhance their scale. We’re delighted to partner with MIKROE, and are confident our Payment Orchestration Platform will accelerate their access to payment providers in the countries where they are active and diversify local currency risk”

CellPoint partner Reach is the acquirer for MIKROE and the platform is fully deployed today.

Marko Jovanović, Head of IT for MIKROE, added: “Despite what has been a tough time for many people and businesses, we have continued shipping worldwide, making one new product per day, and successfully growing our business. Now is the perfect time to join forces with CellPoint Digital. Its expertise and innovative platform will drive efficiencies and there is a long-term opportunity to expand our potential payment partners in different countries.”

This partnership comes as 451 Research’s Voice of the Enterprise surveys indicate that 67% of merchants see payments as a highly strategic area of focus for their company, rising to 78% for most digitally advanced businesses.

Emphasis on transforming payment processes and technologies continues to increase, with 61% of merchants agreeing that modern payments infrastructure will be highly transformative for their business over the next three years.

Electric Life, part of the Tandem Group plc, has enhanced its checkout consumer finance offering following a successful integration with Deko, the multi-lender Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) platform. This in turn will enable its customers to purchase a range of electric bikes and scooters online through flexible payment options.

Tandem Group plc itself is the designer, developer, and distributor of a range of branded sports, leisure, and mobility products, including the Claud Butler, Dawes, Falcon, and Li-Fe bicycle brands. Based in the West Midlands, the Group also sells a range of sports, toys, and leisure products under its MV Sports brand to a host of national and international retailers.

More recently the business has expanded its go-to-market offering launching the Electric Life direct-to-consumer operation complementing its existing business to business model. Through a dedicated website and a recently opened showroom in Castle Bromwich in Birmingham, consumers can select and order from an extensive range of electric bikes, scooters, motorbikes, mobility scooters, and more from the family of brands owned by the parent group.

Melanie Vala, CCO, Deko, stated: “Electric Life is a first for the Tandem Group as it takes complementary steps to go direct to consumers while maintaining its excellent relationship with those existing retailers that stock its well-known brands. Our goal, therefore, was to help them successfully launch a direct to consumer offering with the broadest possible financing options available. This in turn will not only enable their customers to buy what they want and when they want, but also minimise cart abandonment and maximise sales conversion.” 

The Electric Life eCommerce operation is based on the VisualSoft platform, an easy-to-manage professional storefront - optimised for any device, with high converting order processes including guest checkout, flexible sales, and discounts - all running on fast, secure PCI level 1 compliant fully managed hosting. 

Deko’s ability to integrate seamlessly with VisualSoft and its pre-existing solid relationship with the vendor was an important consideration in the Tandem Group’s decision to adopt Deko. It meant that the integration was easy with no disruption in delivery. 

“Electric Life is now able to offer our instalment product, a consumer finance solution with 6, 9 and 12-months credit options, ensuring that it can present to consumers the most flexible finance offering possible. With a product range across multiple price points, this facility will be critical for consumers looking to manage their personal cashflow,” concluded Vala.

Martin Fisher, Electric Life, added: “Deko is the ideal solution for us not only in terms of the ease with which we were able to integrate it with our existing eCommerce platform but critically because it offered us the ideal consumer finance threshold that matches our product portfolio perfectly. As we roll out our direct-to-consumer offering, and we gain the relevant FCA licenses, I know that Deko will grow with us enabling us to offer our consumers a range of alternative finance solutions for the products they desire.”

Ecospend, the UK’s leading Open Banking payment provider, today announces that more than 94,000 customers have used its 'Pay-by-Bank' technology to make £123 million in Self-Assessment payments via the HMRC app since February 2022. Ecospend’s partnership with HMRC marked the first time that an Open Banking payment method had been embedded within a government department’s system.

In October 2022, more than 6,700 Self-Assessment customers paid almost £5.9 million in tax via Ecospend’s 'Pay-by-Bank' technology, compared to around 2,500 customers in February 2022, who paid £1.8 million. This means that over the course of eight months, the volume of transactions per month grew by more than 2.5 times, while the value of transactions per month tripled.

Payments made using the app are sent directly from the taxpayer’s bank account, using validated HMRC details.  This means that in addition to increased speed, less human error and cost savings, , paying this way has the potential to reduce fraud as money is transferred without the need to share card or bank details for either party.

James Hickman, CCO of Ecospend comments:

“The rapid adoption our Open Banking payment solution through the HMRC app is hard evidence that account-to-account payments are the best way to meet consumers’ expectations for a fast and simple payment journey.

“We hope that the success of our work  with HMRC is a clear demonstration of the benefits that Open Banking can provide to the public sector, businesses and consumers alike and look forward to working with other Government departments, as well as businesses from a range of industries to support them with our innovative payment solution.”

Business funding provider Accelerated Payments today announced it has advanced in excess of €1 billion worth of invoice financing on its fifth anniversary. The milestone comes as the fast growing fintech doubles its work force and extends its global reach, with offices in Europe, the UK, Canada and the USA. 

The total also highlights the massive liquidity pressures that companies face at a time of great uncertainty, due to soaring energy bills, rising inflation and extreme market volatility. 

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Ireland, Accelerated Payments addresses the problem of cash flow for businesses through flexible and innovative invoice finance solutions. 

Companies decide which invoices to fund by using a simple, client portal that allows businesses to upload and select invoices for funding. Once approved, payment is advanced usually within 24 hours. 

A key strength of the company is its international funding capabilities. Accelerated Payments works on a global basis and assists clients trading both domestically and abroad with multiple currency support. The company’s innovative fintech platform, international footprint and proven track record have been instrumental to its  continuous global growth. To date, Accelerated Payments has funded over 350 clients, covering more than 1,300 debtors across more than 40 countries.

Since its launch five years ago, the firm has witnessed a steady incremental increase in volumes on a quarterly basis. Its fintech platform has processed and funded over 100,000 invoices. The company’s run rate is also up and is expected to exceed the two billion euro in total invoice funding by end 2024 (a significantly shorter period of time) as global demand for its services continues to rise. 

“When we started this business five years ago, we would have never imagined that we would have advanced €1 billion worth of invoice finance in such a short period of time,” said Ian Duffy, CEO, Accelerated Payments. “This milestone underscores the valuable work that we do to support businesses as they grow - even during a time of great market uncertainty. We have managed to give ambitious companies a critical lifeline during the pandemic and post Brexit - and we are currently working to mitigate their financial risks during a global crisis that shows no signs of slowing down.”

He added: “Accelerated Payments has been extremely fortunate to have created a valuable service that has helped hundreds of businesses - and we continue to grow day by day - thanks to their loyalty as well as our fantastic, dedicated team who passionately support them. As we celebrate our achievement, we also want to look ahead at what we can do to help more businesses get the capital they need to scale and manage their cash-flow challenges.  We have the tools, resources and contacts to accelerate the growth of many more companies and look forward to supporting them wherever they wish to expand in the world.”

As well as funding the invoices, the firm also provides credit insurance on debtors, giving extra peace of mind to clients and investors should there be any issues with settlement. Clients hail from USA, Canada, the UK, Ireland and also mainland Europe, and operate across different industry sectors.

The firm has established a strong partner ecosystem of client introducers over the years, including financial brokers, high street banks, FX providers and Private Equity companies. In particular Accelerated Payments made headlines when it partnered with Virgin Money to support the development of its business banking proposition and bring additional services to UK customers.