Compliancy Services, one of the UK's leading providers of compliance consultancy and regtech services, today announces that it has formally merged with Portman Compliance.

The deal will see Portman’s existing portfolio of over 150 clients, the majority of which are hedge funds and private equity organisations, continue to be serviced by the Portman team, within the Compliancy Services business. By doing so they will benefit from the company’s scale and expertise. Nancy King, founder of Portman, will head up the new specialist funds division and lead client accounts in the newly created role of Senior Managing Director.

The merger, which has been supported by private equity specialists Ethos Partners, will enable Compliancy Services to double the size of its specialist funds team. The deal will boost the company’s overall headcount to nearly 60 staff, servicing over 800 clients across its specialist teams. The expansion comes following rapid growth for both firms, with average annual revenues rising 20 per cent year on year, for the last five years.

The news comes following several major hires into Compliancy Services’ Capital Markets team, with industry veteran Maurice McDonald joining as Director of Wealth Management and Jonathan Aseervatham appointed as Director of the Prudential Services team. Compliancy Services now provides a complete range of consultancy to its clients, in the areas of banking, and capital markets, including hedge funds, private equity, asset management, wealth management, corporate finance and broking, payment services, consumer credit, insurance, and lending,’

Philip Naughton, Chief Executive Officer, Compliancy Services, comments:

“With increasingly complex regulation, businesses are seeking multi-sector, specialist partners to guide them, as they grow and develop, through all aspects of their compliance journey.

I have known Nancy for many years, and we share the same values and beliefs when it comes to client services and delivery. By bringing together Compliancy and Portman, we will dramatically increase our specialist capabilities in the funds sector and Nancy’s proven expertise and insights will be a huge asset, as we take our business to the next level.”

Nancy King, Senior Managing Director, Compliancy Services, comments:

“Joining forces with Compliancy Services is a natural next step for Portman, as we seek to offer our clients access to a wider range of capabilities and expertise. By combining resources, we can build a business that leads the industry, offering clients first-class consultancy with a finger on the pulse of constantly evolving regulation.”

Babel Finance, a crypto-financial service provider that provides digital asset loans, recently raised $80 million in a Series B funding round. The investment increased the company's worth to $2 billion. Leading venture capital companies such as Circle Ventures, 10T Holdings, Jenerations Capital, BAI Capital and Bertelsmann, and Dragonfly Capital led the fundraising.

Babel Finance's $80 million funding round is not it's first. Last year, it secured $40 million from Tiger Global Management, Sequoia Capital China, Zoo Capital, and other big institutional investors.

Del Wang, the company's CEO, commented on the move, saying that the crypto sector is "full of opportunities and hidden hazards." The funding round also supports the long-term path for crypto, and it has the potential to replace gold and its position in the present financial system, he believes.

For decades, gold investors have extolled the precious yellow metal as the ideal "store of value," shielding their investments from the destructive effects of inflation. Then along comes Bitcoin. Some cryptocurrency supporters have recently claimed that crypto can keep up with growing prices better than gold. They say it will be even more independent of the dollar and other mainstream financial assets because it exists wholly outside the current financial system.

Traditionally, investors concerned about inflation and the loss of fiat currencies' purchasing value have turned to gold. Because of its scarcity and durability, the argument is that gold is a greater store of value than paper money, which has an infinite supply and is backed by the government.

However, has gold been stable and a good store of value? In 2021, gold's limitations as an inflation hedge were even more evident. Gold was down as consumer prices rose at their fastest rate since 2008. On the other hand, Bitcoin and many other crypto assets enjoyed growth in value, despite recent volatility.

Del Wang believes that Bitcoin and crypto assets will increasingly become mainstream for the financial assets industry and investors in general, citing that several financial institutions have already shifted from traditional commercial banking to the realm of crypto. As a result, Bitcoin, crypto assets, and gold should have a growing correlation.

Del Wang suggests that as crypto assets and Bitcoin become more widespread investments, investors would begin to regard both assets identically. In gold's defence, some argue that volatility is crypto's weakness. Gold and other precious metals are more conventional stores of value. In theory, they aren't nearly as volatile as crypto and therefore are not likely to trade near zero in terms of value.

Del Wang and his Babel Finance crypto team looked into one indicator of an asset's efficacy as a "store of value": the Sortino ratio. It is a metric that modifies returns to account for volatility. According to a five-year chart on the casebitcoin.com website, Bitcoin has consistently outperformed gold's Sortino ratio despite its reputation for increased volatility. So gold is very volatile, and Bitcoin's rapid gains have made the increased risk worthwhile.

Evidence points out that there is potential that crypto assets and Bitcoin could replace gold and its position in the present financial system. Even during extremely volatile times, Bitcoin shines as a store of value over a medium to long-term horizon. Even more so than gold.

Leading global payroll provider Papaya Global is expanding the range of products and services it provides to its business customers worldwide as a result of its acquisition of the digital money transfer platform Azimo.

This follows the announcement that Papaya Global’s valuation has soared to $3.7 billion, which comes on the back of raising an additional $250 million through its latest Series D funding round. This represents a 10x increase in the Israeli company’s value since September 2020 and follows the $100 million raised from an earlier Series C round.

Leading this most recent funding round was global private equity and venture capital firm Insight Partners, along with Tiger Global and existing investors Scale Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, IVP, Alkeon Capital, Workday Ventures, Access Industries and Group 11.

With a global increase in remote working and the associated complexities of maintaining compliance across diverse jurisdictions, there is a growing need for companies to be able to manage tasks such as onboarding, payroll, and payments through a single unified platform.

The Papaya Global SaaS software system delivers these and other automated cloud-based payroll and global payment solutions for companies operating in over 150 countries. 

Azimo app makes moving money affordable 

The Azimo digital payment network enables businesses of all sizes to transfer money internationally quickly and securely, 24 hours a day. Available in more than 200 countries and 80 different currencies, the Azimo app and website make financial services more accessible and affordable at a rate that is up to 75% cheaper than banks and other money transfer providers (according to World Bank data).

Azimo’s technology, fintech expertise and multiple payment licenses will enhance the support Papaya Global provides to companies managing remote teams worldwide. "Azimo’s global digital payment network will also enable us to build new payroll-related services for our business customers and their employees,” said Papaya Global CEO Eynat Guez.

The acquisition means that Papaya Global is now able to deliver global payments in hours rather than days — including instant payroll payments — as well as enabling it to develop a range of new, cutting-edge payment solutions, including cryptocurrency, cash advance and credit-related products for its global client base.

Azimo acquisition to enhance services for Papaya’s clients

Acquiring Azimo significantly increases the range of services and products Papaya Global can provide. This will not only include instant payment of payroll, but also a greater range of remittance services for Papaya’s clients. 

Hitherto, Azimo has had a different core customer to Papaya Global, with its users more typically being remittance workers rather than salaried professionals. However, the acquisition of Azimo means that employees working in one country who want to send money to another will be able to do so via the integrated Papaya Global platform, rather than having to go through another third-party payment transfer provider, potentially at a greater cost and more inconvenience. 

In addition, the move will also facilitate Papaya Global’s expansion into a growing number of markets, as Azimo brings with it multiple payment licenses worldwide, including major centres such as the UK, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, and Hong Kong. 

Making payment transfers more efficient for companies and employees

A further benefit that this acquisition will deliver for Papaya Global clients is an all-in-one, end-to-end service that will make it more cost-effective for companies to manage and pay remote employees through the provision of digital cross-border payments.

The Papaya Global cloud-based SaaS platform is fully customizable and can be integrated seamlessly with a range of HRIS management tools. It streamlines the management of global payroll regardless of a company’s physical location, as well as enables instant payroll payments to be made worldwide. 

This is a key feature that marks Papaya Global from other technology vendors in the global payroll and remote workforce management industry, and which makes it increasingly easy for companies and individuals to move money simply and quickly around the world.

• 21.06.2022 -- 10:16 am

We're thrilled to announce our fresh B2Core integration with the cTrader platform. The new integration will allow you to trade various instruments on cTrader while enjoying the benefits of the B2Core CRM solution. 

This partnership allows us to offer fast execution, low latency, and a wide range of features that will be valuable for traders around the globe. We believe that this addition will be a great benefit for our clients and their users. If you're looking for a powerful and convenient trading platform, we encourage you to check out cTrader on B2Core today!

With our easy-to-use trader’s room, you can provide your clients with everything they need to manage their account – all in one place. Your clients will be able to access their demo and live trading accounts with just a few clicks, and enjoy the easiest connection to our powerful trading platforms. 

We have developed a brand new frontend for the cTrader platform that is easy to use and navigate. It provides all of the instruments, features, and tools that users need to be successful in their trading. We are excited to offer this new tool to our users and believe that it will help them take their trading to the next level. 

We're exploring the ways to let admins customize their account settings more from the B2Core panel. This would enable you to better tailor your account to your needs. Finally, we're also exploring the option of adding an archive function for accounts. This will enable you to keep track of your cTrader account history and performance more easily. Overall, these new features and benefits will make trading on the cTrader platform more convenient and efficient for everyone. We hope you take advantage of them in the future! 

"Staying aligned with our philosophy of being an open platform, we always welcome new integrations, and we are committed to bringing them to life," said Panagiotis Charalampous, Head of Community Management at Spotware - the company behind cTrader. "We are delighted that B2Core has successfully joined the flourishing ecosystem of cTrader integrations, and we look forward to offering this great new option to brokers and traders."

"The new integration will fulfil the needs of multiple trading platforms availability and inevitably boost our user experience" added Daniel Skitev, Head of the Marketing Department at B2Broker. "We are constantly striving to push the boundaries of what is possible in order to provide our users with the best possible services in the Fintech industry," — said Daniel. 

Conclusion

Along with cTrader, B2Broker now supports seven trading platforms, namely MT4, MT5, OneZero, B2Trader, PrimeXM, and DXtrade. We plan to add support for all existing trading platforms in the market, and you can expect the integration with ActTrader soon. Stay tuned for more updates! 

Conduct smarter ID searches & contextualised risk indicators using the world’s largest database of people and businesses

Tuesday June 21st, 2022 - ComplyAdvantage, a global data technology company transforming financial crime detection, today announced the release of  a new tool called ComplyTry, enabling anyone to verify prospective customers using live sanctions, politically exposed people (PEPs) and adverse media data for free.

The cornerstone of a successful anti-money laundering (AML) program is not only thorough and accurate identity verification, but also the context that surrounds an identity and whether this context signals any form of illegal behavior, intent, history or association.

Compliance teams throughout the financial services industry are challenged daily to analyse, extract and validate identities with elevated risk signals with the ultimate goal of preventing financial crimes before they happen. Given the growing volume, velocity and complexity of financial crimes, the task of identity verification and contextual analysis has become increasingly complex and time-consuming. 

However, with advances in data and machine learning, ComplyAdvantage has optimised this laborious and lengthy process making it fast, accurate and free. With ComplyTry, anyone has the ability to search, verify and assess the context that surrounds identities using the company’s real-time database of sanctions, watchlists, PEPs and adverse media. 

Simply input the details of your customer, select the data sources you want to screen against and search.  Each result will be represented by a card. Once clicked, the card reveals the full body of the profile with all  relevant information included.

The benefits of ComplyTry are numerous, including:

- the ability to conduct smarter research with matches found by existing screening providers

- leveraging AI-driven negative news insights that you won’t find in search engines, and which are aligned to the latest Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and EU AMLD recommendations

- speeding up onboarding times with live dynamic data and insights so businesses can scale with the utmost in integrity 

Kanisha Patel, Head of ComplyLaunch at ComplyAdvantage:

“We decided to offer ComplyTry after having an incredible response to our ComplyLaunch program which offers  free access to AML and KYC tools for startups. And like ComplyLaunch, our goal is to continue to democratize access to vital AML tools and information to better prepare startups and to help fortify our ecosystem against the threat of financial crimes.  By making these sorts of programs and tools accessible, everyone benefits.”

Already the preferred choice of some of the world’s largest banks, enterprises, and high-growth FinTechs, ComplyAdvantage uses machine learning to help regulated organisations manage their risk obligations and prevent financial crime. 

ComplyAdvantage is also a leader in providing anti-money laundering insights that including the company’s much lauded State of Financial Crime2022 report, the Evolving Use and Sanctions report and most recently, the Anti-Money Laundering Guide for Growing report.

• 21.06.2022 -- 08:21 am

Gordon Tveito-Duncan is a Co-Founder of GaiaLens, a FinTech group that provides a data-driven, transparent, and real-time ESG analytics platform to institutional investors. They achieve this by combining cutting-edge technologies and the latest thinking in ESG investing.

Government initiatives revealed on the 20^th of June will protect millions of customers by tightening Buy-Now Pay-Later credit agreements. 

The plan, released on Monday, follows a Treasury consultation on worries that the unregulated BNPL industry is putting customers in debt. As with other loans, companies offering the service will do credit checks to guarantee users can afford the bill. 

Buy-now, pay-later credit arrangements allow customers to spread out the expense of a purchase. People don't have the typical complete range of borrower safeguards when taking out this form of loan, which could hurt consumers. 

As part of the new consumer protection regulations, misleading promotions and ads will be addressed, and BNPL firms will need FCA approval to operate in the UK. If the requirements are not followed, users can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

As of November 2021, more than 17 million UK consumers had utilised BNPL's interest-free installment services.

Mike Peplow, CEO at Paynetics, says: 

"Regulation is an appropriate development for the BNPL space, bringing the product into the mainstream whilst making sure we have positive outcomes for consumers. 

Although BNPL often doesn’t charge an interest rate to the consumer, there are penalties and repercussions for late or non-payment.  Simply providing a link to terms and conditions on a website, or providing a page of small print in an App, is not going to be sufficient to convince the regulator that firms have sufficiently communicated the implications of taking on a BNPL product. The new affordability checks coming into play today will protect consumers from spending beyond their means. 

Regulation is a vital next step for BNPL and I believe these changes will help the consumer while continuing to champion the development of this innovative sector."

Neil Kadagathur, CEO and Co-Founder of Creditspring, says:

“While the proposed regulations are a welcome step forward, we simply cannot wait that long to regulate the BNPL sector. There is chronic miseducation about BNPL – one in seven UK adults thinks it’s impossible to get into debt using BNPL and a third are unaware that it’s even a form of borrowing and debt. This, combined with the cost of living crisis which we know is pushing more people into borrowing, is unsafe and unsustainable and is guaranteed to damage the long-term financial health of millions of UK borrowers.

In lieu of immediate regulation, the onus falls to lenders to ensure they are lending safely and protecting borrowers by not providing more credit than an individual can safely afford to repay.”

Colin Neil, UK Managing Director of Adyen says: 

“Choice and flexibility are vital for shoppers when it comes to paying for goods and services. And our research shows consumers are more likely to shop with retailers that offer a choice of payment options. Buy now, pay later services are important because they offer consumers another form of choice, and according to our research, some even say it helps them better manage their finances. But as with any financial product, there needs to be the right protection in place for consumers and retailers.”

Despite Bitcoin undergoing heightened volatility in recent months, the interest in the flagship cryptocurrency has skyrocketed as the market anticipates the next price action. The searches have also shot up after Bitcoin made slight gains following weeks of sustained correction.

Data acquired by Finbold indicates that as of the week ending June 12, 2022, Google Search's interest in the keyword ‘Bitcoin’ hit a 12-month high with a peak popularity score of 100. Notably, the spike represents a growth of 35% from a score of 74 recorded in the week ending June 27, 2021.

The 100 popularity score also represents a growth of over 156% from 39 registered as of June 5, 2022.

In particular, El Salvador leads in the number of countries showing the highest interest in Bitcoin at 100. The Netherlands ranks second with a score of 27, followed by Nigeria at 26, while Switzerland is third at 22, the same score as Turkey and Austria.

Other countries with significant search volume include Slovenia (22), Singapore (20), Canada (18) and Germany (18).

Drivers for El Salvador’s high-volume searches 

The report highlights possible drivers behind El Salvador’s dominance in Bitcoin searches. According to the research report:

"From the Google Search trend, El Salvador stands out, recording significant volume, correlating with the country’s historic declaration of Bitcoin as a legal tender. Since the declaration, the scope of adoption has not been determined, although the government is making moves to increase adoption."

Historically, Bitcoin’s Google searches volume has closely correlated with the asset’s price movement driven by investor curiosity and in some cases controversy.

Currently, the crypto has dropped to historical lows last experienced over one year ago. The drop in valuation usually presents an opportunity for potential investors to buy in the dip with the aim of profiting during the next rally. There remains a general sentiment that Bitcoin will rebound from the latest price drop