Published

  • 07:00 am

Investment management firm JM Finn has slimmed down its data centre infrastructure from twenty-four to just six equipment racks by migrating legacy datacentres to the Nutanix Cloud Platform. The migration has resulted in an impressive 75% reduction with major implications for both power and cooling requirements as well as the company’s long-term carbon footprint.

Since its inception in 1946, the investment management company has grown steadily to boast both a multi-billion pound investment portfolio and an enviable reputation for individual client-focused financial investment services recognised as amongst the best in the world. With a clear focus on the provision of high-quality investment management services to a diverse client base, JM Finn was keen to embrace cloud computing as part of its transformation plans to make the company’s IT more agile, cost effective and easier to manage.

Choosing a suitable platform was relatively straightforward as JM Finn had previously used the Nutanix Cloud Platform to, first, replace a key legacy storage resource then rapidly host a company-wide EUC application to support working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic. The solution offered hypervisor neutrality which meant JM Finn had the option to simply migrate most of its existing VMware VMs rather than immediately switch everything over to the AHV hypervisor.

Commenting on the migration, Jon Cosson, Head of IT and CISO, JM Finn, said: “Having successfully switched a workforce of over 300 onto remote working in under a week we knew just what the Nutanix Cloud Platform was capable of doing and how easy it was to manage. Over just two weekends we relocated both our primary and secondary datacentres, but that’s not all. By migrating all of our legacy servers and applications to the Nutanix Cloud Platform we were able to reduce the overall rack footprint by 75% and realise tangible benefits in terms of operational costs and environmental impact.”

Following an extensive needs analysis, Cosson and the team came up with a design which has enabled JM Finn to slim down its data centre infrastructure from twenty-four to just six equipment racks. Performance gains have been widely reported and running costs significantly lowered, which has enabled JM Finn to halve the number of staff needed to support the new infrastructure with those displaced moved into other roles to find ways of better exploiting the new technology.

The required equipment was quickly ordered and installed first in a brand new primary datacentre in Suffolk then at a secondary site in Hampshire to provide additional backup and disaster recovery capabilities. Once working, migration was scheduled to take place over successive bank holiday weekends to mitigate against any disruption although, in practice the process proved trouble-free.

“It all went remarkably smoothly,” commented Cosson. “There was no loss of service and no complaints which have to be a first for a project like this which could, so easily, have gone off the rails and caused real headaches for the business. It’s hats off to Nutanix and its partners for making it so seamless and we’re very pleased with the results and the high level of support both during and after the process.”

Looking ahead, JM Finn plans to take full advantage of the company’s new private cloud to further drive down operational costs and maximise the value of the company’s investment. Alongside ongoing work to identify workloads suitable for moving to the Nutanix AHV hypervisor several projects are planned, including the migration of legacy IBM systems over the next few months.

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  • 03:00 am

GMEX Group ('GMEX'), a leader in digital business and technology solutions for capital markets, is proud to announce that it has been awarded Best Development in FinTech of the Year by Crypto AM for its GMEX Pyctor institutional-grade digital assets technology. These coveted awards are judged by an independent, expert panel of industry leaders. GMEX competed with other finalists including Revolut to win.

GMEX Pyctor ('Pyctor') was acquired earlier this year by GMEX after being successfully incubated in ING Neo's innovation lab. It has been jointly developed in collaboration with multiple blue-chip financial institutions (both asset managers and banks) and regulators. This leading fintech provides regulatory-compliant digital assets network and digital custody technology and is designed for firms operating in regulated environments. It offers highly secure digital custody and transactional network services for a broad range of digital assets, as well as delivering interoperability between permissioned and public blockchains.

GMEX Group is in its tenth anniversary year. While its business started in traditional finance, developing exchange matching engines, clearing, settlement and custodial solutions, the firm was early to get involved in the digital assets space in 2017 with the subsequent launch of the GMEX Fusion, a unique centralised and distributed ledger market infrastructure suite for exchanges and post-trade operators. It now has multiple solutions as part of an overall technology fabric, including its MultiHub 'network of networks' service, which interfaces with Pyctor, removing the need to integrate with multiple trading parties, trading venues and digital custodians. Sitting at that intersection, GMEX is a hybrid finance specialist, addressing the interoperability issues experienced in the market to bridge traditional and digital assets activity aligned with current and evolving regulations.

Hirander Misra, CEO of GMEX Group said: "The current environment will lead to increased regulations and an institutional digital flight to quality, creating a need for an offering which makes it easier navigate this with the right governance, control, security and risk management."

He continued, "GMEX Group is the first company to offer an end-to-end multi-asset, multi-sector Hybrid Finance solution designed for regulated environments, which bridges the gap between off-chain Traditional Finance (TradFi), Centralized Finance (CeFi) and on-chain Decentralized Finance (DeFi) across jurisdictions. We are pioneering in the domain of Hybrid Finance (HyFi) and are thrilled to have our success in developing unique solutions to address industry challenges formally recognised with this highly prestigious award."

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  • 01:00 am

Brightwell, an Atlanta-based global payments technology company, today announced that inCruises, an exclusive travel membership program serving 100 million partners worldwide that gives people expanded access to world-class travel experiences, has integrated Brightwell’s ReadyRemit* platform, powered by Brightwell’s international payment partners, to offer cross-border payments to its international partners in over 120 countries.

Soaring International Travel Calls for Cross-Border Payments

As travel slowed down due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, pent-up travel demand surfaced quickly. In fact, Americans’ intent to make bookings doubled across most travel categories from February to September 2021. With more travellers packing up their bags for long-awaited international travel, inCruises enabled their international partners an opportunity to earn compensation on growing travel demand.

inCruises’ partners earn a commission for membership referrals to the exclusive travel club. Using Brightwell’s ReadyRemit, inCruises offers its partners the ability to request commission payouts in near real-time through convenient options, including bank deposit, cash pickup, or mobile wallet.

“As companies expand their global reach, we’re seeing an increased need for cross-border payment services that are easy to incorporate into client platforms,” said Hal Ramakers, senior vice president, Brightwell. “However, launching an international payments program is no small lift - ReadyRemit changes that by enabling easy and fast integration.”

“Because our partners live across the globe, we needed a cross-border payments platform that allowed the company to pay out commissions quickly while minimizing foreign transaction fees,” said Anthony Varvaro, chief financial officer, inCruises. “Managing the process internally became a burden to the team, so we turned to ReadyRemit because it gave us regulatory and licensing coverage to our priority corridors and integrated easily into our platform.”

ReadyRemit: Powering Global Payments Programs

Introduced to the market last month, ReadyRemit is a comprehensive solution that powers global payments capabilities. Powered by Brightwell's international payment partners, ReadyRemit enables international businesses to launch a global payments program to drive customer loyalty quickly. By offering ongoing compliance, global connectivity, simple integration and ongoing customer support, ReadyRemit makes it easier than ever for companies to drive revenue and loyalty through cross-border payments.

“ReadyRemit is ideal for teams that don’t have the support needed internally to launch global payment capabilities,” said Audrey Hall, chief product officer, Brightwell. “We’ve designed our cross-border payments solution to help businesses capture more revenue by quickly and seamlessly integrating global payments into their offerings through a low to no code platform.”

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  • 08:00 am

InvestCloud, the global leader in financial digital transformation, today announced that Huntington National Bank has launched Advisor Connect, a branded, digital experience built on InvestCloud’s Find My Advisor technology. Huntington is a subsidiary of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (Nasdaq: HBAN), a $179 billion asset regional bank holding company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.

Retirement savings, insurance concerns and financial planning can feel overwhelming without a financial advisor who understands your unique needs. Huntington now offers Advisor Connect, a digital platform that makes it easy for customers to shop for and connect with the right Huntington financial advisor. After answering a few questions, users are shown a tailored list of advisors whose interests and areas of speciality align with their financial needs, personal interests and preferences for collaborating remotely or in person.

“Connecting our customers with the right advisor is essential to providing an outstanding experience for our customers,” said Michael Robinson, Huntington’s Director of Wealth Management. “Our partnership with InvestCloud delivers on our vision to be the leading ‘people-first, digitally powered’ bank and puts the customer at the centre of the experience.”

Developed in collaboration with Huntington, Find My Advisor is an API-based application that integrates seamlessly into an existing online banking experience. It uses customizable questions and logic to make the process of finding an advisor intuitive. Simply answer a few questions—current financial assets and future goals, personal and philanthropic interests, in-person or virtual meetings—to see a tailored list of compatible advisors with either Huntington Private Bank or Huntington Financial Advisors, a Huntington affiliate. Through Find My Advisor, wealth managers and financial institutions, like Huntington, can deepen existing customer relationships while helping clients plan for and achieve their long-term financial and investment goals.

“Developing empathy with a client for effective communication and planning—either in person or digitally—is a must for any wealth manager,” said Will Bailey, chief strategy officer at InvestCloud. “So being able to connect the right client to the right advisor is essential for long-term, multi-generational retention. Find My Advisor, the InvestCloud app behind Advisor Connect, does just that, helping to secure clients and convert them at scale.”

“This app also speaks to how we approach innovation at InvestCloud,” Bailey further explained. “We work hand in hand with our clients to develop the precise functionality they need and in a way that works seamlessly with the brand. We’d like to thank Huntington for going on this journey with us.”

Find My Advisor is the latest app added to InvestCloud’s ever-expanding library of more than 300 digital apps that can be configured in infinite ways for more personalized and intuitive client experiences. The solution is now available to wealth managers globally through InvestCloud X. 

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  • 08:00 am

Strategic Risk Associates (SRA), a leading provider of integrated risk and performance management SaaS technology (WatchtowerTM) for the Financial Services and Insurance Industry, today announced the closing of a $12 Million Series B capital raise.  This round of funding was co-led by EJF Capital (“EJF”), through its affiliate the EJF Silvergate Ventures fund, JAM FINTOP, and FINTOP Capital, with participation by longtime SRA customer Atlantic Union Bankshares Corporation, and other existing investors.

“Financial Institutions need a panoramic view of risks that provide the board and executive management better oversight of their business and addresses the increasing regulatory burden and economic realities of today’s banking environment,” said Michael Glotz, CEO and Co-Founder of Strategic Risk Associates.  “SRA’s vision is to help our clients improve hindsight, insight, and foresight into their organization’s risks and opportunities through advanced data analytics and continuous monitoring.”

With decades of experience in risk and compliance, the SRA team has built a reputation as the trusted experts in helping Financial Institutions and Insurance companies adapt to changing regulatory pressures. This investment allows SRA to continue this work at scale with the robust Watchtower™ SaaS platform and expand their integrated risk suite of offerings to support FinTech and Digital Asset risk management.  

“EJF believes that the banking industry is undergoing a rapid evolution to a substantially more real-time data-driven future.  Success will be predicated on managing enterprise risk through advanced tools such as Watchtower.  These tools will help both banks and their regulators properly assess direct and indirect risks across the spectrum of their balance sheet,” says Jonathan Bresler, Managing Partner of the EJF Silvergate Ventures Fund. 

JAM FINTOP and FINTOP Capital believe SRA is uniquely positioned to become the leader in enabling banks to compliantly offer next-generation banking services,” adds Joe Maxwell, Managing Partner of FINTOP Capital.

SRA works with hundreds of financial institutions across the US that are concerned with today’s regulatory environment and risks associated with adding modern products, such as (crypto) digital assets, and keeping track of their 3rd party vendors. The expansion of Watchtower’s Fintech Risk Management Suite will help banks and credit unions measure their FinTech risk maturity, offering quarterly risk assessments, including issue management, and continuous monitoring through interactive dashboards and data visualizations to ensure they mitigate risk, stay compliant and conform with guidance from regulators.

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  • 09:00 am

New research from Trulioo, a leading global digital identity verification platform, shows that 87% of online marketplace leaders view identity verification as critical to protecting consumers and building trust during unpredictable times. Those respondents also overwhelmingly see identity verification as more than just a single step during onboarding, with 90% saying it should be continuous throughout the customer journey.

The research, highlighted in the “Wary Customers Seek Reassurance From Online Marketplaces” report, reveals that consumers want online brands to do more to protect them against fraud and identity theft. It found that for 73% of consumers, online security is a bigger consideration than it was three years ago.

The research also found:

  • 57% of consumers are more tolerant of identity verification

  • 85% say online brands that invest in the best identity verification show they care about their customers 

  • 75% of online marketplace leaders acknowledge digital trust has eroded during the past three years and consumers are on higher alert

  • 58% of those marketplace respondents report their organization added more identity verification steps to adapt quickly to fraud and cybercrime threats

“Trust and safety are the foundation for online marketplaces,” said Steve Munford, Trulioo CEO. “Identity and business verification are crucial to establishing that trust while also allowing marketplaces to adapt to emerging threats, simplify global expansion and ensure they are providing a secure environment that maintains the convenient experiences customers expect.”

The research underscored the importance of identity verification agility and resilience, with 74% of online marketplace leaders saying it’s needed for complex geographical expansion and 90% saying increasing user volume is intensifying the need. Download the report for more insight into how online marketplaces are adjusting to customer expectations and establishing a competitive advantage through identity verification. 

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  • 04:00 am

Leading African digital payments company  DPO Group launched DPO Pay Mobile, a new version of their payments app.. With several new features, DPO listened to merchant feedback to redesign and redevelop the payment app. DPO Pay Mobile app, previously called DumaPay, now offers a variety of new features to allow for easier, more convenient transactions no matter where in Africa their businesses are.  

DPO Group Chairman and co-founder Offer Gat said: “We took our merchants and their  customers into consideration, and together, our teams transformed our existing technology to  create a mobile application that now will help businesses across Africa grow quickly and with  ease.”  

DPO Pay Mobile is available for download on iOS App Store and Google Play Store from  November 2022. It allows credit and debit card payments from leading global card networks such as Mastercard, Visa and American Express. The app can also be used with major money wallets in Africa like mPesa, Tigo Pesa, Airtel Money, Orange Money and MTN MoMo. 

DPO Pay Mobile App features: 

o The app accepts payments globally, with DPO’s multi-currency solution allowing customers to pay in the currency of their choice. It allows business owners the flexibility to grant their employees access to the app with special settings to hide sensitive information. 

o It offers a seamless way to accept payments from customers on the go, either during check-in or during a safari ride. 

o DPO Pay Mobile can now process QR codes which businesses can use to allow their customers to pay in one easy step. It can also create payment links so customers can pay online in any currency with a choice of payment methods.  

o Authorised users of the merchants can also view and manage transactions, create reports, and get a complete view of their next settlement date and how much they are owed.  

The payments sector has seen a considerable increase in the adoption of ever-changing technologies; however, it is important that the adoption of these technologies has the merchant’s feedback incorporated in the final product to ensure the user interface and experience suit the merchants and their customers.  

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  • 04:00 am

The increasing complexity of trade surveillance requirements, driven by regulatory demands and exacerbated by volatility, is putting pressure on manual processes and driving investment in automation, a new study by Acuiti has found.

Acuiti’s latest report — “Getting to the risk quicker: How trade surveillance leaders are dealing with an increasingly complex environment” - investigates the challenges facing trade surveillance teams as regulations governing trading have grown in scope, detail and enforcement, and as the sophistication and complexity of trading products and techniques has advanced.

The independent report, commissioned by Eventus, collated the views of 71 senior trade surveillance, risk, compliance, technology and trading executives at banks, brokerages and proprietary trading firms. Eventus, a leading global provider of multi-asset class trade surveillance, market risk and transaction monitoring solutions, commissioned Acuiti to conduct this research project to analyse the key challenges that face banks, brokers and proprietary trading firms when structuring effective trade surveillance operations.

Among the key findings:

●        94% of respondents said that the complexity of trade surveillance has increased over the past three years, with 64% saying it has increased significantly

●        Increased regulatory requirements and market volatility are the major drivers of heightened complexity in trade surveillance in the last three years

●        A majority of sell-side respondents said that their analysts are spending more than 30 hours a week manually closing and investigating alerts

●        High manual input is being exacerbated by a shortage of skilled compliance staff    

●        Firms are increasingly looking to technology for efficiency, with a clear desire for more automated workflows (64% of banks referring to machine learning as either very important or critical)

●        Over 60% of respondents had either recently invested or were considering investing in trade surveillance within the next 12-18 months

●        Buy-and-build methodologies couple the advantages of both third-party and in-house solutions    

The report found that firms traditionally faced a straight choice between developing their trade surveillance systems in-house or outsourcing to a third party.

Both have their drawbacks and selling points, but a new generation of vendors brings together the best of both worlds through buy-and-build solutions. This could change the equation for many firms that want to both respect guidance from regulators, which according to respondents prefer third-party surveillance solutions, and maintain the ability to customise systems to their best advantage.

Joseph Schifano, Global Head of Regulatory Affairs for Eventus, said: “It’s important to help compliance teams respond quickly and with as much detail to potential issues that arise with their surveillance alerts. Automation techniques enable analysts to work with the front office more efficiently, getting to the root cause of any potential issues. Analysts need to customise their technology and mitigate risk based on particular businesses, regulatory jurisdictions and trading activity. Today’s surveillance system must enable its users to be nimble and responsive to a rapidly changing global environment while being explainable to the front office and regulators alike.”

“The pressure on the sell-side to maintain high-quality trade surveillance systems is immense and unlikely to abate any time soon,” said Ross Lancaster, Head of Research at Acuiti. “Regulation and the volatility we have seen this year are creating sustained stresses on compliance desks, and this is increasing the case for strategic investment.”

Download the full report at http://www.acuiti.io/acuiti-eventus-getting-to-the-risk-quicker/.

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  • 08:00 am

Today marks a huge success for Block Scholes as we welcome D2X, the digital asset derivatives exchange soon-to-be-regulated in the EU*, to our growing list of clients seeking more professional crypto investment tools. D2X will integrate Block Scholes’ data into their pricing tools and risk systems.

It’s extremely encouraging to see an institution of this calibre recognise the value that we provide through our comprehensive platform, which offers crypto analytics, data and research capabilities collectively to an institutional standard.

Ernest van der Hout, Chief Risk Officer at D2X, commented: “Within D2X, we are very pleased to have entered this partnership with Block Scholes. In their implied volatility model, we found exactly the advanced solution we were looking for to help us accurately price options on our digital derivatives market. In addition, the Block Scholes service provides key elements for the state-of-the art risk management that we are implementing of these instruments. We are confident that partnering with Block Scholes contributes considerably to the quality of the D2X service offering.”

Notwithstanding the fallout from the demise of FTX, institutional investment interest in crypto markets has been steadily increasing over the long-term, but the dearth of data – such as that available to professional investors in traditional finance markets - has been a significant barrier to growth. Existing solutions are primarily orientated towards retail investors, and lack features such as state-of-the art quantitative models, and live pricing and volatility engines for systematic trading. By combining proprietary data, interactive analytics, enterprise services, financial products and independent research on one comprehensive and intuitive platform, it’s our goal to facilitate and accelerate institutional crypto investment in a way that has not been done effectively before.

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