OKX, the world-leading cryptocurrency platform, today announced the launch of its Custody Trading Sub-Account product for customers looking to benefit from trading team strategies and institutional and high-net-worth investors.

Custody Trading Sub-Account involves OKX acting as a trusted third party between the investor and their money manager or trading team. The product mitigates the risks investors face by granting them greater control over their investments and delivering multi-layered risk management. It also provides greater transparency by enabling investors to monitor leverage and margin usage in real-time and access and share OKX-verified trading records.

Haider Rafique, Global Chief Marketing Officer, OKX, said: “The recent conspicuous near-insolvencies have taught us that many investors who entrust their funds to market makers or hedge funds don’t have control, or even visibility, over how their money manager is trading. These firms provide questionable risk management and transparency and, in some cases, this has even allegedly led to investor funds being used to answer margin calls. We are launching OKX Custody Trading Sub-Account to provide much-needed control and transparency and help everyone in the industry.”

When it comes to controlling, investors are able to configure a range of account trading access rights, while third parties and trading teams are not permitted to move investor funds directly. Comprehensive risk management protocols additionally prevent assets from being collateralized twice and enable investors to access features such as warning level, trade-freeze level, and kill switch. Finally, smart contract auditing from OKX means that due diligence is undertaken by a trusted third party.

Lennix Lai, Financial Markets Director, OKX, said: “After lessons were learned during the recent debacle involving some mismanaged firms, we believe it’s fundamentally important that the crypto industry has an independent, trusted third party to play the role of custodian for these types of investments. This custodian would provide both clearing and appropriate risk management. We need to find a way to segregate clients' tokens from managers’ in-house wallets while making sure the managers fulfil their fiduciary duties to both their clients and the relevant communities. We also need to ensure that there is transparency for investors and communities as far as how their funds are being staked, traded, or utilized as collateral.”

OKX Custody Trading Sub-Account allows the money manager or trading team to access a broad range of products in both the CeFi and DeFi spaces in order to fulfil their obligations to investors. During the custody period, the trading team is also equipped to protect their proprietary strategic trading and position information.

With this launch, OKX builds on the risk management record that saw it protect more than 500 million UST in user funds prior to May’s LUNA/UST crash. OKX will continue to incorporate comprehensive risk management strategies to ensure users can invest both safely and responsibly.

Almost nine-in-ten UK banks or financial services organisations (89%) have lost out on green trade finance opportunities, compared with only 56% in Switzerland, new research reveals.

With pressure from governments and international bodies for the global trade finance system to incentivise carbon reduction and sustainability, 90% of financial organisations in Switzerland and 96% in the UK say they view sustainability concerns as a medium or high priority. Yet there are major differences in capabilities. Only 73% of Swiss trade finance organisations are currently able to screen carriers and vessels in any way, compared with 92% in the UK.

The research was conducted for Pole Star, the global leader in maritime risk intelligence among 350 heads of trade, compliance, and finance in the UK and Swiss-based banks and financial services organisations.

It shows how continued reliance on manual processes and ad hoc solutions undermines efforts to make global trade more sustainable. On average, Swiss trade finance organisations’ compliance departments spend 43% of their time screening for sustainability, compared with 50% among UK banks.

“Banks in Switzerland may be better than UK counterparts at seizing green finance opportunities but the reality is that sustainability screening and the ability to demonstrate compliance in both countries is pretty woeful,” said Simon Ring, Global Head of Maritime Trade Technologies & ESG, Pole Star.

Most trade finance organisations in both countries cannot screen carriers’ vessels engaged in commodity transactions for their emissions reductions, although the UK is slightly ahead. Currently, 31% of UK trade finance organisations can do this, compared with 27% in Switzerland. Only 15% of Swiss organisations can screen a commodity transaction for modern slavery and workforce wellbeing, compared with 33% in the UK. And just 14% of Swiss trade finance businesses screen commodity transactions for deforestation compared with 29% in the UK.

Despite the obvious sustainability screening difficulties of banks revealed in the research, only 36% of Swiss-based trade finance organisations and 31% in the UK say end-to-end screening of transaction ecosystems for sustainability is one of their three biggest challenges. In the UK, 40% of organisations cite the problem of having to use multi-point solutions instead of single, integrated services (selected by 22% in Switzerland).

“This is a major commercial oversight, meaning financial institutions will continue to miss out on important new revenues. It also means institutions are poorly prepared for governmental pressure to link finance to reduced emissions and climate-change goals. This is certain to increase in the wake of the COP26 climate conference and implementation of carbon-reducing EU regulations.”

The research showed, however, that there is increasing awareness of the shortfall in digital screening capability within banking and finance. More than four-in-ten financial organisations in the UK and Switzerland (43%) want sustainability screening integrated into their compliance software. Nearly three-in-ten (28%) want high-quality data on individual vessels’ carbon emissions. 

But banks and institutions are also hindered by significant screening problems among carriers, forwarders, and charterers. The research found less than half of all such shipping industry organisations (49%) are currently able to demonstrate compliance with sustainability or screening requirements.

Bitbns, a leading Indian cryptocurrency exchange, has partnered with Tradetron, the country's most widely used algorithm automation platform, to facilitate automated crypto trading for its traders and investors. With this strategic partnership, Bitbns aims to empower its users to automate their investment strategies while facilitating seamless trading and investment in the digital asset class.

Automated trading, also known as Algo trading, is the process of using computers programmed to follow a defined set of instructions for placing a trade to generate profits at a speed and frequency that is impossible for a human trader. The most significant advantage of automated trading is that users can execute a particular crypto trading transaction on multiple indicators, inclusive of a targeted price at lightning speed. 

Automated trading has been popular among equity traders. It is now slowly becoming a popular choice among crypto traders globally too. 

It empowers strategy creators by allowing them to automate their strategies and make them available to investors and traders worldwide. Users need not have to write a code and yet can create an algorithm to trade automatically.

Tradetron is a multi-asset, multi-currency, multi-exchange which allows strategy creators to create trading algorithms using a web-based strategy builder. Once the users create the algorithm, it can be listed on the exchanges where investors can subscribe to them and take those trades in their existing brokerage accounts. Tradetron is the most widely used traded automation platform in the country. 

Commenting on this development, Gaurav Dahake, Founder & CEO, Bitbns, said, "Innovation is at the heart of everything we do and as one of the country’s leading crypto exchanges, we have always pursued to offer seamless end-to-end trading and investment experience to all our customers. Our partnership with Tradetron, will offer our users the unique proposition to avail a more systemic approach to active trading than being driven by emotions or mere gut. By following a defined set of instructions pertaining to price, quantity, timing etc. this trading mechanism has the potential to help build more discipline into trading. Additionally, the platform will help build more trust among retail investors who can now bank on a computer program to enjoy smart trading while opting for the strategy that works best for them."

Commenting on the development, Umesh Ranglani, CEO, Tradetron Inc, said, “Crypto as an instrument has two specific properties which make it ideal for automated trading; Its volatility and the fact that it’s a 24-hour trading window. One possibly can't be available for trading all the time and once the algo is doing the job for you, you can let your strategy do its magic. We are excited to tie up with BitBns as our first crypto partner to bring the power of Tradetron to all BitBns users. As the ecosystem deepens, stable, dependable, profitable strategies will emerge which one can trade to take bets with an edge on your side.  “.

The feature is live on Tradetron and Bitbns platforms and is accessible to existing and new users. 

FIA Tech, the leading technology provider to the exchange-traded derivatives industry, announced today that Trading Technologies International, Inc. (TT), a global provider of high-performance professional trading software, infrastructure and data solutions, has joined the FIA Tech Databank Network. 

Databank Network is FIA Tech’s initiative to bring together independent software vendors (ISVs), exchanges, clearing houses and other data providers into an interoperable global network simplifying the use of reference data, analytics and software solutions from participating firms. It unifies reference data from over 80 exchanges and central counterparties (CCPs), leading index providers including FTSE, MSCI, S&P, STOXX, independent software vendors and data vendors EDI and Factset. TT is the second ISV to join the network.

Andrew Castello, Head of Reference Data at FIA Tech said: “We are very pleased to welcome TT to the Databank Network and offer TT customers ready access to the industry services FIA Tech provides. As the network grows, so too will the benefits for the ISV community, further underscoring our mission to bring innovation to the derivatives industry.” 

“We are happy to join the Databank Network,” said Guy Scott, EVP and Chief Revenue Officer at Trading Technologies. “Being part of FIA Tech’s global interoperable network will provide our clients with broader access to symbologies and simplified integration while further supporting Trading Technologies’ vision of being the operating system of capital markets.”

By incorporating TT symbology into the global product reference data maintained on the Databank Network, TT’s clients will be fully interoperable with all FIA Tech services as well as other ISV participants in the Databank Network. FIA Tech’s Databank provides firms with a cross-reference of exchange and vendor product symbologies, which can be used by subscribers to simplify integration of systems from best-of-breed providers, communicate more easily with clients and counterparties and simplify integration to FIA Tech services. 

Participants worldwide came together to showcase their passion and talent for solving next-generation real-life problems.

The RegTech Media Group, Africa’s leading regulatory innovation hub in partnership with NayaOne, a global digital innovative sandbox provider, launched the inaugural RegTech4Good Challenge. This RegTech Africa hackathon enables innovators to collaborate intensively in solving real-life challenges. Teams used creativity, technology, and mentoring, resulting in prototypes, fresh new concepts, and innovative solutions.

The hackathon was at the 2-Day RegTech Africa Conference 2022 (https://www.regtech.africa/), which witnessed the massive participation of over 5,000 attendees. The event brought together thousands of next-generation innovators, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and regulators worldwide with the shared vision of transforming the financial world by building solutions and bringing together innovative technologies.

With the growing demand for digital services across Africa, where financial inclusion is badly lacking, weak consumer protection and data privacy frustrate socio-economic development. Therefore, this widespread uptake of digital services has heightened consumer risks and raised new policy concerns for the regulators.

The hackathon aims to develop viable outcomes for inclusive innovation and boost homegrown solutions that would disrupt and tackle the industry's fundamental challenges. The challenge is mainly to protect vulnerable financial service consumers in Africa.

Open to teams globally, the RegTech4Good challenge saw over 300 registered participants above 18 years from 32 locations across four continents of Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America.

The participants split into teams and were required to work together ahead of a 3-day intensive booth camp, brainstorming and ideating new concepts leveraging the NayaOne integrated Digital Sandbox platform.

Each team pitched its ideas to a Jury of experts who are some of the industry’s best with decades of experience in technology, business management, marketing, media, and others. The carefully selected panel of judges comprised Kevin Mutiso, Chairman of Board Digital Lenders Association of Kenya, Osioke Ojior, Co-Founder & Chief Risk Officer, Covenda (UK), Sujata Rastogi, Director, Financial Services at NayaOne, and Tunde Ogungbade, Group Managing Director, Accelerex Holdings.

Using the platform, the participants were able to leverage technology and bespoke datasets in a secure sandbox environment to explore multiple solutions to best address the challenge. Having all participants in a collaborative platform enabled participants to communicate and collaborate when building solutions and get in touch with mentors on the platform as needed. 

The top three shortlisted teams participated in a 5-minute pitch on the first day of the conference, with the team of Faidat Abdullahi and Nonhlanhla Nkosi (Finofrica) taking the top spot on the finale of the hugely successful conference.

The Finofrica team, whose ‘Play to Earn’ financial literacy solutions targets vulnerable youths in Africa, displayed exceptional creativity in their idea and use cases for implementation. 

RegTech Africa will promote the winning solution and concept through a global network of ecosystem accelerators to boost visibility and attract equity investment and funding opportunities.

At the event, Cyril Okoroigwe, CEO RegTech Media, said, “we are delighted to host the maiden edition of the RegTech4Good hackathon. It has brought together hundreds of talents dedicated to protecting vulnerable financial service consumers. We look forward to discovering more talents in the years ahead to drive the next growth phase for Africa’s homegrown innovative solutions”.

On his part, Karan Jain, CEO, NayaOne, stated, “The impressive performances of the teams who were painstakingly selected provide an excellent example of what is possible when people with the right mix of skills are enabled with technology. The technical hackathon demonstrated the passion and hard work of participants who worked together towards a common goal and shared purpose”

GTreasury, a treasury and risk management platform provider, today announced that it has named Victoria Blake as GTreasury’s Chief Product Officer, and Ashley Pater as General Manager at Hedge Trackers. Recently acquired by GTreasury, Hedge Trackers is the global leader in accounting, consulting, and software services that protect clients against financial risk.

Victoria Blake joins GTreasury with more than 20 years of experience and success in product leadership roles across several SaaS and technology companies. Blake comes to GTreasury from Zapproved, where she served as the Vice President of Product. During her tenure at the e-discovery software provider, she led high-level strategy development, product definition, and market-facing thought leadership and vision. Before Zapproved, Blake was responsible for defining next-generation cloud services offerings as the Vice President of Product Management at Metal Toad, an AWS Consulting Partner. Blake has also held product management and leadership positions at WebMD Health Services, Jive Software, and Walker Tracker.

As GTreasury’s Chief Product Officer, Blake will lead the company’s global product and UX teams in developing and delivering innovative new solutions for GTreasury’s customers and partners. From modern automated treasury and transaction management to AI-powered SmartPredictions™ cash forecasting and visibility, GTreasury’s SaaS platform empowers treasury teams and the office of the CFO with the future-proof technology and capabilities required to drive confident financial decision-making. GTreasury has also continued to expand its broad ecosystem of connected partner technologies, via API integrations with ERPs, banks, and other external providers where instant data connectivity maximizes customer efficiencies.

“GTreasury has built its reputation as a leading treasury and risk management platform by harnessing innovative cloud, AI, machine learning, and emerging technologies that move our industry forward,” said Victoria Blake, CPO, GTreasury. “Just as importantly, GTreasury has always focused on product usability and ensuring that its powerful tools are always easily accessible and seamlessly connected for the teams that rely on them. I look forward to building on what GTreasury has created over the past three decades, and delivering even more next-generation tools to make CFOs and treasury teams more successful.”

Ashley Pater is now the General Manager of Hedge Trackers after more than a decade of leadership roles within GTreasury. Pater most recently served as GTreasury’s Chief Product Officer, where she was responsible for aligning product vision and strategy to the company’s business objectives. Pater previously held leadership positions in GTreasury’s marketing and account management functions, focusing on building global brand awareness, lead generation, event management, and cross-sell programs.

Pater will oversee daily business operations and lead growth strategy around Hedge Trackers’ FX, interest rate, and commodity price risk management services and consulting. Pater will also ensure alignment and integration opportunities within the broader GTreasury organization. Hedge Trackers offers best-in-class expertise and technical depth in meeting today’s unprecedented demand for effective hedging strategies, identifying exposure, managing risk, and meeting compliance and audit requirements. Under Pater’s leadership, Hedge Trackers will focus on bolstering its risk management expertise and bringing new solutions to market across the company’s risk product suite.

“Combining the strengths of GTreasury and Hedge Trackers makes us the clear market leader when it comes to both our treasury risk management products and our consulting acumen,” said Ashley Pater, General Manager, Hedge Trackers. “Today’s CFOs and financial leaders understand that risk management and hedging capabilities are critical to navigating volatile markets and achieving larger business goals. I’m excited to further our solutions and insight to equip customers with the solutions required for effectively and cost-efficiently managing their risk.”

“Both Victoria and Ashley possess the clarity of vision required to advance our GTreasury and Hedge Trackers products to meet our customers’ evolving needs today and well into the future—and both bring relevant, experienced, and proven leadership to accomplish those goals,” said Renaat Ver Eecke, CEO, GTreasury. “I’m glad to welcome Victoria and Ashley into their new roles and look forward to what’s to come from GTreasury and Hedge Trackers.”

Exactpro, a leading software testing services provider for financial market infrastructures, has announced today the expansion of its operations to Armenia, with the opening of a new office in Yerevan.

The new subsidiary will be led by Sona Oganesyan who has been appointed CEO of AI Testing LLC. In her new role, Oganesyan will spearhead the development of a new software testing delivery centre, with the aim of further diversification of Exactpro’s business across multiple geographies and timezones.  

Sona has spent over a decade with Exactpro and brings deep expertise in functional testing to the role. She also has extensive knowledge of the local market, which will prove invaluable as the firm looks to attract new technical talent and strengthen the company’s software testing capabilities, enhancing the service delivery across the European and wider Western Asian region.

Iosif Itkin, CEO and co-founder of Exactpro, commented: “Launching our operations in Armenia, we are building on the success of our expansion to Georgia which started in 2018: our Tbilisi office currently employs almost 300 specialists, which makes it our largest delivery location. We see West Asia as a region with a significant growth potential due to the available talent pool and steady growth of the ICT sector and the relevant infrastructure for both local and international IT firms. We are delighted to be opening a new service delivery centre in Yerevan, which will be led by Sona, allowing clients to benefit from her unique skill set and the local know-how.”

On her appointment, Sona Oganesyan, CEO, AI Testing LLC, Armenia, said: “I look forward to leading Exactpro’s expansion into Armenia and the Western Asian region, tapping into its leading IT expertise.”

She added: “The past decade spent working with Exactpro has enabled me to work on a diverse range of projects, helping to build my expertise in the financial technology domain. I look forward to sharing my experience by working with local and international experts, helping to drive resiliency of the global financial services industry through system testing.”

Exactpro is planning to continue its rapid expansion over the coming year, both in the existing and new locations, in response to growing client demand.

SignD, a leading KYC provider that integrates 30 different onboarding, compliance, signature and payment functionalities, has deployed Smart Engines software for credit card scanning. The technology helps SignD customers conveniently and securely verify credit cards without manual data entry. Using AI-powered scanning allows SignD to read the data from credit cards:  first name, second name, date and the last four digits of the credit card number in order to check if the card belongs to the user and if it's still valid.

SignD provides a single platform for any business need: identity verification, KYC verification, risk analysis, Qualified Electronic Signatures, compliant onboarding, etc. The company's services find their application in the financial industry, healthcare, government, telecommunications, travel, gaming, and any digital business.

Thanks to the introduction of Smart Engines technology, the process of remote verification of a bank card has become fast and convenient for both SignD platform users and their clients. Now, all you need to do is upload a card photo. The system will automatically scan the owner's first and last name, expiration date, and the last four digits of the card number. The Smart Engines technologies that are used in the AI ​​solution provide a high level of security for processing personal and sensitive data since all calculations in the OCR process are performed within the SignD platform without transferring images over the Internet to third-party services.

The credit card scanner software by Smart Engines allows you to quickly and accurately extract data from credit cards issued by VISA, MasterCard, Maestro, American Express, JCB, UnionPay, Diners Club, Discover, RuPay, Elo, Verve, V Pay, Girocard, PagoBancomat, MyDebit payment systems, Troy, BC Card, Interac, Carte Bancaire, Dankort. On modern smartphones, credit card data scanning is performed at 35 ms per frame. The accuracy of card number OCR reaches 99.68%.

"We are proud to help our partners implement advanced technologies in order to improve the user experience, reducing the costs and risks of their companies around the world. The implementation of the solution developed by Smart Engines helps us provide a first-class service and make the customer journey through a universal end-to-end platform fantastic. Credit card OCR is almost instantaneous and safe in terms of processing personal and sensitive data," says Bernhard Reiterer, CEO at SignD.  

"We are pleased that our credit card scanning solution is becoming more and more popular all over the world and allows more and more companies to easily and accurately scan credit card data. For us, cooperation with SignD is an important milestone because SignD is a top provider of expert solutions for onboarding and risk management," says Vladimir Arlazarov, CEO at Smart Engines, Ph.D.

Menlo Security, a leader in cloud security, today announced that it has released the HEAT Security Assessment Toolkit designed to provide organisations with the ability to assess their levels of protection and current exposure to Highly Evasive Adaptive Threats (HEAT). Since July 2021, Menlo Security has seen a 224% increase in HEAT attacks. These attacks allow threat actors to deliver malicious content, including ransomware, to the endpoint by adapting to the targeted environment. 

The HEAT Security Assessment Toolkit includes a HEAT Check test and a HEAT Analyzer that runs on the Splunk Platform. The HEAT Check enables customers to run a light penetration test to identify if they are susceptible to HEAT attacks. The Menlo Security HEAT Analyzer App for Splunk provides organisations with visibility around HEAT attacks that their network may have been exposed to over the past 30 days. 

What is a HEAT Attack?

Highly Evasive Adaptive Threats (HEAT) are a class of cyber threats targeting web browsers as the attack vector and employ techniques to evade multiple layers of detection in current security stacks including firewalls, Secure Web Gateways, sandbox analysis, URL Reputation, and phishing detection. HEAT attacks are used as the initial access point to deliver malware or to compromise credentials, which in many cases leads to ransomware attacks. 

“Ransomware, data and credential theft and other malware are on the rise. Couple this with the Log4J vulnerability, the Lazarus and Conti groups increased attacks targeting web browsers and the result is security teams worldwide facing a nearly non-stop barrage of incidents,” said John Grady, Senior Analyst, ESG. “Tools such as the HEAT Security Assessment can help ensure companies are aware of potential attacks before they have a chance to happen.”

HEAT Security Assessment Toolkit

The HEAT Security Assessment Toolkit provides a lightweight penetration and exposure assessment to help an organisation better understand their susceptibility to HEAT attacks. 

“HEAT attacks are defined by the techniques that adversaries are increasingly using to evade detection by traditional security tools,” said Mark Guntrip, senior director of cybersecurity strategy, Menlo Security. “HEAT techniques can be used individually or in combination for any type of attack that targets the user, endpoint, or applications, including ransomware. The HEAT Security Assessment Toolkit is critical to helping companies ensure they are protected against these attacks.”

HEAT Check

The HEAT Check enables customers to run a light penetration test to find if they are susceptible to HEAT attacks. The assessment leverages several real-world HEAT attacks currently being used by threat actors, safely enabling the user to determine their exposure.

The HEAT Check does not deliver actual malicious content. It uses an industry-standard EICAR file to test an organisation's existing HEAT exposure. If the EICAR file is delivered without triggering an alert inside an organisation’s current security stack, then the security technology is not providing the requisite level of protection to defend against HEAT attacks. 

Menlo Security HEAT Analyzer App for Splunk

To assess current HEAT exposure, the HEAT Analyzer, now available on Splunkbase, provides organisations with visibility around HEAT attacks that their network may have been exposed to over the past 30 days. This assessment tool analyses the company’s web traffic to determine the scale of HEAT exposure currently in their network and identifies the associated websites that were accessed. 

The Menlo Security HEAT Analyzer provides organisations with a simple and effective way to perform a URL & category analysis of the visited websites. The HEAT Analyzer Report will highlight a customer’s exposure to HEAT attacks as well as the number of legacy URL reputation evasions, including click time mis-categorisations, specific categories serving up Legacy URL Reputation Evasion techniques (LUREs), as well as frequently seen domains.