In recent years, the Basel IV capital regulations and amendments have put banks under large amounts of pressure to place the right measures, controls and models to understand these regulations’ impact on capital. With capital positions weakening, banks were forced to change their focus from capital optimisation to resource deployment, something which delayed Basel IV implementation. Additionally regulations such as the FRTB ad SA-CCR, impacting market and counterparty credit risk had a huge impact on the risk and capital management side. Moreover, new regulations related to climate risk and stress testing being introduced recently by the Bank of England and the European Central Bank, meant that banks had to step up their capital-related efforts in this area. In the face of new and ongoing regulatory pressures and market conditions, banks need to be able to adapt and optimise their capital management practices.

With this in mind, the marcus evans 25^th edition Capital Management for Banking Institutions conference held between 26-28 September 2022 in London, UK will provide practical guidance on how to optimise capital management for banking institutions, with in-depth sessions on ensuring effective compliance with regulations such as the FRTB and SA-CCR, adapting to climate risk, enhancing capital planning, and meeting macroeconomic challenges. These hands-on sessions will be delivered by best-in-class practitioners who are uniquely equipped to pass on their expertise in this field. This guidance will enable banks to rise to the challenge of the new regulatory and macroeconomic conditions, and further develop their capital management and risk frameworks.

Attending This Premier marcus evans Conference Will Enable You To:

• Overcome regulatory and macroeconomic constraints to optimise capital efficiency
• Finalise and finish up Basel IV
• Define and disclose: The net green asset ratio
• Link organisational practices and procedures to new regulatory demands
• Unravel the complexities in capital optimisation

Best Practices and Case Studies from:

• Johannes Langthaler, Senior Group Regulatory Transformation Manager, Raiffeisen Bank International
• Andrea Cremonino, Head of Portfolio and Pricing Management Analysis and Strategy, UniCredit
• Barbara Polak-Labit, Capital Management Lead, NatWest Group 
• Brightwell P Zhezi, Head of Economic Capital: Treasury and Capital Management, Standard Bank Group 
• Muhammad Rehan Nasir, Head, ICAAP and Model Validation, Dubai Islamic Bank
• Thomas Rohold, Head of Financial Resource Management, Senior Vice President, Danske Bank

Financial IT subscribers are entitled to a 15% discount (early bird)! For more information please contact Ria Kiayia, Digital Media and PR Marketing Executive at riak@marcusevanscy.com or visit: https://bit.ly/3xC5atJ

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and especially Machine Learning (ML) tools have generated a lot of interest and investment from banks, asset managers, pension funds and hedge funds. These companies strive to utilize various ML techniques such as supervised and unsupervised ML, Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Data Science to develop better-investing strategies, find new competitive insights from data they collect and buy, and ultimately increase profits and beat the competition. There is a vast amount of data that needs to be properly processed and advanced technologies can assist with this. Their algorithms can process data at a much higher speed than traditional methods, as well as lead to higher accuracy in prediction due to the advanced learning they can do. To ensure they can be adopted within the business, there is still the need to prove that they can achieve better results than traditional methods and ensure key stakeholders within financial institutions trust the results of the models which are sometimes complicated to understand.

The GFMI 4^th Annual Machine Learning in Quantitative Finance conference taking place on October 3-5, 2022 in New York, NY and virtually will offer case studies on how financial firms can implement machine learning within business operations with utmost effectiveness. Solutions of how firms can increase explainability and interpretability in results of black-box algorithms within their models will be focused on.  This conference will also investigate how machine learning can be used within ESG processes and the current most effective uses of natural language processing. Furthermore, the current regulatory environment will be examined and the best practices for implementation of alternative and synthetic data will be discussed and evaluated. 

Attending This Premier marcus evans Conference Will Enable You To:

• Determine the best practices to increase the explainability of machine learning models outputs
• Understand how machine learning can best be implemented within ESG operations
• Acquire increased knowledge and clarity on the potential increase in new regulations of machine learning
• Assess the most effective uses of natural language processing
• Analyze how data can be practically applied to business problems and discuss the future implications of machine learning

Best Practices and Case Studies from:

• Arthur Maghakian, Managing Director, Data Science And Machine Learning, Goldman Sachs
• Amit Deshpande, Head of Fixed Income Quantitative Investments and Research, T. Rowe Price
• Trevor Mottl, Managing Director & Artificial Intelligence Portfolio Manager, Lazard Asset Management 
• Peng Cheng, Head of Machine Learning Strategies, JP Morgan 
• Caio Natividade, Managing Director, Global Head of Quantitative Investment Solutions Research, Deutsche Bank
• Hamdan Azhar, Head of Data Science, Blackrock

Financial IT subscribers are entitled to a 15% early bird discount! For more information please contact Ria Kiayia, Digital Media and PR Marketing Executive at riak@marcusevanscy.com or visit: https://bit.ly/3O2ZK0l

Leading payment orchestration provider BR-DGE has partnered with global fintech disruptor Trust Payments to provide its merchants access to Trust Payments’ suite of Converged Commerce™ offerings.

The new partnership will enable BR-DGE customers to access Trust Payments’ technology, including an all-in-one payments platform, award-winning risk management tools, Anti Money Launder (AML) and fraud detection features.

Through a single point of integration, BR-DGE’s merchants can access a world of payment providers, fraud capabilities and alternative payment methods. Coupled with Trust Payments' cutting-edge smart tools in storefront, payments, loyalty and data management, the partnership offers a flexible and secure solution to improve offerings.

Businesses are combining different value propositions to meet the demand for new sales flows. From alternative currencies to online, offline and mobile add-ons, this concept of Converged Commerce™ is offering merchants greater control, choice and flexibility to create powerful, innovative offerings, thereby increasing sales, enhancing customer loyalty, and optimising margins.

Discussing the partnership, Brian Coburn, CEO at BR-DGE, says: “We are pleased to be joining forces with Trust Payments to offer their technology to our growing list of merchants. Through this partnership, BR-DGE will offer a larger range of payment tools to merchants, empowering them and their customers with reliable, seamless payment tools. This is our latest major partnership as we look to scale our offering with both payments providers and merchants.”

Daniel Holden, CEO at Trust Payments, says: “Our partnership with BR-DGE will open up enormous possibilities for merchants. Our technology will drive better choice and flexibility to tailor and layer e-commerce offerings to remain competitive and grow fulfilling our vision for Converged Commerce™. We are delighted to work together with BR-DGE to help them expand their offering and we look forward to what the future holds as we create payment experiences that customers want.”

The partnership with Trust Payments reflects strong growth in both businesses. BR-DGE’s continued scaling of its product offering, alongside the launch of a number of strategic partnerships, meant that in the last year, the team has grown by 50% with YoY growth expected to double again in 2022. The company has also signalled plans to enter the US market later this year. Trust Payments also had a positive 2021 and recently reported a 73% increase in total revenues to £108.7m, up from £62.7m the year before while headcount doubled from 214 to 428 employees across the UK, EU and US.

ACA Group (ACA), the leading governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) advisor in financial services, announced today that Neeraj Karhade has joined the firm as Chief Financial Officer.

Neeraj joins ACA with over 20 years of experience in finance, private equity, organizational transformation, and business operations. Most recently, he worked as CFO of Transformco where he had responsibility for the company’s financial functions, including financial reporting, audit and compliance, treasury, tax, strategic planning, and corporate finance. Prior to this, Neeraj was CFO of Silverline, where he led the company’s financial strategy and direction through the Covid pandemic and help set up Silverline for its next stage of growth.

Shvetank Shah, CEO of ACA Group, said: “Following our recent merger with Foreside, we’re now serving over 6,300 clients. As we get larger and more complex, our entire financial and analytics infrastructure needs to mature to support this expansion. Neeraj’s experience not just as a financial leader but as chief performance officer will help scale ACA through our next chapter.”

Neeraj Karhade, Chief Financial Officer of ACA Group, further commented: “I’m excited to join a dedicated and passionate team who truly cares about their clients. GRC as an industry is constantly evolving, and ACA has evolved along with it, oftentimes even ahead of its clients and regulators. It is this path of innovation, technological enablement, and the wide-open space to build a sustainable business that got me very excited about ACA. I admire and respect the progress made by ACA to date and look forward to participating in what is to come.”

Biller Genie is now integrated into the Maverick Payments gateway, enabling Maverick’s thousands of merchants to use Biller Genie’s robust cloud-based accounts receivable tools for both Credit Card and ACH (eCheck) Processing. The partnership expands the list of payment gateway options available via Biller Genie software.

"Maverick is an industry-leading payment processor and we are thrilled to join forces with a partner who is not only full service but who is a technology leader in the space," said Biller Genie President and Co-Founder Garima Shah. "Our partnership and integration with Maverick give us the ability to continue expanding our footprint to serving thousands of SMBs with an automated accounts receivable solution as well as empower ISO's working with Maverick to unlock new business that was inaccessible before."

“We are excited about Biller Genie as an integrated partner to the Maverick platform, enabling our expansive network of partners and resellers to effortlessly leverage Biller Genie’s invoicing solutions for credit card and ACH payment processing through Maverick,” said Ben Griefer, COO of Maverick Payments. “The experience, service level, and technology Biller Genie offers clients combined with the seamless onboarding of the Maverick Dashboard is massively beneficial for any ISOs working with Maverick.”

TrueLayer, Europe’s leading open banking platform, today announces its collaboration with Curve, the fast-growing financial super app, that will give Curve customers more control and flexibility over their finances.

Curve represents the next generation of financial apps where customers enjoy the convenience of keeping all their cards and accounts in one smart digital wallet to manage their finance, and gain insights into their financial lives - empowering them to make better financial decisions, save money on fees, earn rewards and even flex any transaction into instalment from any of their accounts.  As part of its mission to empower customers to financial freedom, and further enhance the Curve experience, it is collaborating with TrueLayer to deliver instant bank payments and recurring payments to its Curve ecosystem.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has mandated the UK’s nine largest banks to provide variable recurring payments (VRPs) that support the automatic transfer of money between two accounts belonging to the same person, referred to as ‘sweeping’.  

Using payments powered by TrueLayer, Curve customers will be able to make purchases via instant bank transfer using the Curve all in one card. They will also have the flexibility to set up a recurring payment mandate for future purchases. For customers of its innovative credit feature, Curve Flex, recurring payments will automatically sweep funds from their linked current account for scheduled repayments.

As a result, Curve customers will have far more control compared to other payment methods, with a single payment approval that removes the need to re-authenticate or re-authorise transactions or bear hefty credit card fees. That payment consent is tied to the customers’ bank account and doesn’t expire until it’s revoked by them, for example, when the Curve Flex balance has been paid off.

Real-time payment confirmation provides Curve with additional assurance that every transaction has been authorised and funds received. Unlike Direct Debit or card-on-file payments, TrueLayer provides real-time settlement into a merchant wallet that will enable Curve to access funds faster and manage its cash flow more effectively. It will also reduce operational costs by removing the overheads associated with managing legacy payment methods. 

Shachar Bialick, Founder and CEO of Curve, says: “Curve is delighted to partner with TrueLayer to offer our customers the best of payments innovation: greater insight to their accounts, which results in the reduction of their borrowing costs, and more control over their payments. Curve was doing open banking before Open Banking existed, and we’re excited that the sector keeps developing with new technology like VRP. We are excited to be pioneers again with this new technology which was incepted in the UK by the CMA, and look forward to working with TrueLayer to make sure our customers can benefit from these advancements.”

Francesco Simoneschi, CEO and Co-founder of TrueLayer, comments: “We’re delighted to be partnering with Curve. This is another milestone in the evolution of Open Banking, with two UK innovators collaborating to bring the benefits of modern, instant payments to everyday purchases and VRP to credit repayments. It’s exciting to see one of the leading UK fintech businesses spearheading the next phase of Open Banking’s evolution, and we look forward to working with the Curve team, delivering a more compelling payment experience to its growing customer base.”

OKX, a world-leading crypto trading app and Web3 ecosystem, today announced the appointment of Rachel Conlan as the Global Head of Brand Marketing and Partnerships. 

With extensive experience in the sports, entertainment and marketing industry, Rachel will be instrumental in building the OKX brand internationally.

Rachel will be responsible for driving the company’s brand and marketing efforts through partnerships with Manchester City F.C., McLaren Racing, and Tribeca Festival. She will report to Haider Rafique, appointed to the role of Global CMO in May, to grow brand awareness beyond Asia while onboarding new users to the OKX platform safely and responsibly.

Haider Rafique, Global Chief Marketing Officer, OKX, said: “Rachel is a rare talent, and we are very fortunate to have been able to attract her to our team. She is among the very few marketers with a passion to simplify crypto and bring more diversity into the industry. It's exciting for our OKX community to have another female leader who is all-in on casting a wider net and helping bring millions of new investors to the industry with a message to trade and invest responsibly.”

Rachel Conlan, Global Head of Brand Marketing and Partnerships, OKX, said: “The crypto industry is now under a brighter spotlight than ever before. In order to gain wider scale acceptance among both existing and diverse new audiences, we need to drive education and understanding. By giving people ways to discover the power of crypto through their existing passions, we can create memorable new experiences and demonstrate how OKX can support their ambitions. It's an exciting time to be joining OKX alongside such a talented team as we look to help drive the brand love this platform truly deserves.”

Rachel led the Global Partnerships team at CAA Sports, a leading international sports and entertainment agency. She was responsible for the development of high profile brand partnerships and cultural marketing programs between global brands, rights holders and talent. Prior to her role at CAA, Rachel worked as Global Chief Marketing Operations Officer for Havas, part of the Vivendi network. 

After being one of the first Italian companies subscribing to the Italian OAM's special registry for Virtual Assets Service Providers (VASP), the crypto custodian Anubi Digital entered its third international agreement in a few months.

Anubi Digital is bringing institutional DeFi to Italy for the first time, through the existing partnerships with Aave Arc and Celsius Network and now by launching a major new project with Maple Finance.

The collaboration allows Anubi Digital to offer all Italian regulated entities the opportunity to participate as "lenders" in Maple Finance's institutional liquidity pools, with the advantage of having a known and guaranteed borrowing counterparty. This model will make the approach to institutional DeFi even more straightforward for Italian Family Offices, SIM (Financial Intermediaries) and Banks.

The liquidity pool has as its counterparty ("single borrower") Alameda Research, one of the crypto world's leading entities, founded in 2017 by Sam Bankman-Fried, also CEO of FTX. Alameda is expected to secure up to USDC 1 Billion of loan requests by the end of the year. The pool can only be accessed by institutional entities and Anubi Digital is currently the only Italian company which qualified for access.

Maple Finance is positioning itself as the leading platform for Institutional DeFi, having originated more than $1.5 billion in loans in just 12 months and counting among its partners and investors key entities such as Alameda, Genesis Trading, and Celsius Network.

Diego D'Aquilio, CEO and co-founder of Anubi Digital, comments: "The agreement with Maple Finance is a key new building block in our offering for Italian institutional investors, who are increasingly looking for new and remunerative exposure to digital assets. The market is evolving at an impressive pace and Anubi Digital, with Maple Finance, aims to offer regulated entities an extremely robust and user-friendly solution".

As the cost of living crisis continues to bite over the second half of 2022, fuelled by an inflation rate expected to hit 10% this year according to the Bank of England, consumers need greater flexibility, efficiency and advice on where best to put their money.

It would be wrong to describe fintech as the silver bullet to the host of challenges facing individuals this year. But, by taking a consumer-centric approach and adopting innovation in the sector, businesses will find they can at least ease some of the pressures.   

As such, Reassured, the UK’s largest life insurance broker, today reveals its top five predictions for fintech in the second half of 2022:

1. Insurtech centred on consumer choice

With the cost of living soaring, it is tempting for many consumers to cancel any insurance policies that seemingly offer no short-term benefits. But, as the last two years have proven beyond doubt, the importance of insurance, particularly a life policy, cannot be overstated. 

It is up to brokers to ensure that the highest possible number of people have access to insurance. That means broadening the ways in which a policy can be bought, so, in the second half of 2022, we expect to see a greater number of brokers and insurers adopt digital solutions to complement core telephony-based sales.

It means putting the consumer first, expanding the number of ways through which they can access life insurance, and ultimately giving them a better level of service.

2. Wave goodbye to archaic pensions

With inflation at a 40-year high and the price of energy and food rising rapidly, consumers are having to make difficult decisions about what to prioritise. Investing in a pension is likely to slip down the agenda as the immediate benefits are not quite as visible.

The good news is that the acceleration in technology and the growth of digital pension challengers such as Penfold and PensionBee mean that consumers have far greater, immediate control over their pensions. Digital driven providers can offer greater flexibility so that savers can adjust or even pause contributions seamlessly if they are struggling to manage day-to-day living costs, which is something that the more traditional providers simply can’t match. This greater level of flexibility and control will keep consumers investing in their future in spite of short-term shocks, giving them a more secure future.

3. The changing face of insurance

The era of poorly coded, sluggish technology is over. Consumers have grown used to a level of service, brought on by the pandemic, which is defined by efficiency and ease of use, and the industry as a whole will make significant efforts to match this, by adopting AI, predictive analytics and advanced chatbots over the next year. 47% of consumers now say they are open to parting with their money via a chatbot. As such, developing technology which improves the performance and quality of service, while providing access to insurance quickly, will be a key focus of the industry in the remainder of 2022.

4. Tech to prevent fraud

Fraud losses following unprecedented amounts of financial support given to businesses and individuals over the pandemic were a painful reminder of the importance of adequate KYC checks. In the UK, an estimated £4.9 billion of taxpayers’ money was lost to criminals as a result of poor identity and verification (ID&V) processes. A primary focus for the second half of this year will be how we can stop this from happening again with technology solutions such as ID-Pal and Veriff, especially as the methods employed by fraudsters become increasingly sophisticated.

5. The future of the homebuying journey

Over the pandemic, the property industry adopted digitisation as a means of survival. As well to online communication, advisers embraced digital application tracking, online fact finds and interactive calculators to their list of services.

These benefits are now standard in the industry, but adoption of these services is certainly not the end. Exciting developments, such as Smartr365’s HomeBuyer platform allow customers to scan a QR code or Near-Field Communication (NFC) chip in an estate agent window or on a property search site. Other companies, such as Acre are similarly pushing for greater tech adoption. This will automatically and remotely share their details with a mortgage broker to begin the application process, bringing even greater efficiency and customer-centricity to the process.

James Turnbull, CTO at Reassured, comments:

“Fintech leapt to the challenge at the dawn of the pandemic by allowing essential financial services to continue to operate remotely and with greater efficiency. Now, it’s time for fintech to step up as the cost-of living-crisis intensifies.

“Innovative technologies in all areas of financial services have the power to grant consumers greater flexibility, greater security, and ultimately, greater freedom – all of which will help individuals deal with the toughest effects of rising living costs. But, it’s up to us as financial services providers to grasp these opportunities and lead from the front, by making use of the best of what fintech has to offer in order to put the customer first.”