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PROSUS MAKES $14.6 BILLION FROM SALE OF 2% TENCENT STAKE
Amsterdam-based tech investor Prosus NV netted $14.6 billion overnight from the sale of a 2% stake in Tencent, the company announced on Thursday.
A filing from Tencent at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange revealed that Prosus had sold 191.89 million shares at HK$595.00 per share.
“Our belief in Tencent and its management team is steadfast, but we also need to fund continued growth in our core business lines and emerging sectors,” Prosus Chairman Koos Bekker said in a statement on Thursday, hours after the completion of the deal.
UNIFYING FINANCE FOR A COMMON CAUSE
In the world of finance, the convergence of two institutions – outside of an M&A – is uncommon. Beyond this, we rarely see two financial brands come together for a common cause. However, when it does happen, it’s critical that they present a clear and unified proposition if they are to achieve success. And the value of that should not be underestimated; the Marketing Accountability Standards Board, whose research from 2018 found that brands contribute an average of 19.5% enterprise value.
CYBER THREATS TO FINANCIAL ORGANISATIONS IN THE POST-COVID ERA
Unsurprisingly, financial services firms and their troves of sensitive data were a big target for threat actors in 2020. The rapid shift to remote work, coupled with insufficient budgets and a lack of training and awareness to mitigate attacks, led to an increased risk for many sectors. Despite the need for cybersecurity and the cost savings it can bring over the long haul (breaches are expensive, especially for financial organisations), businesses prioritised other functions and operations which more directly affected their bottom lines this past year.
DELIVEROO SHARES RALLY ON FIRST DAY OF RETAIL TRADING
Shares in food delivery startup Deliveroo rallied on Wednesday as its first day of unconditional trading on the London Stock Exchange began.
Wednesday marked the first time that retail investors could trade shares in Deliveroo, including the 70,000 who invested in the company’s IPO. It followed a week of “conditional” trading that began last week, during which only institutional investors could trade stakes in Deliveroo.
TRUELAYER AND WOMBAT PARTNERSHIP OFFERS PAYMENT APIS
TruLayer’s SaaS platform uses a toolkit to create specialist consumer and server message block (SMB) apps in payments, personal finance management and online lending. The collaboration with Wombat Invest, a swiftly growing startup investment platform that provides a user-friendly and secure interface for both novice and experienced investors, will provide the UK-based fintech with cutting-edge payment APIs for its investment customers.
FINTECH BEHEMOTHS BACKBASE AND ZAFIN FORM NEW PARTNERSHIP
Canada’s leading relationship-based product and pricing capability solutions service provider, Zafin, has announced a strategic partnership with the Dutch banking engagement platform, Backbase. According to reports, Zafin, which is one of North America’s leading fintech companies, will join forces with Backbase to implement its spectrum of solutions onto the Backbase platform.
STOCKS MAKING THE BIGGEST MOVES IN THE PREMARKET: HILTON GRAND VACATIONS, J&J, NRG ENERGY & MORE
Hilton Grand Vacations (HGV) – The timeshare company posted a wider-than-expected loss for its latest quarter, while revenue was also below Wall Street forecasts. Hilton Grand Vacations said the pandemic has created a challenging environment but said 85% of its properties are now open and operating. Its shares fell 2.3% in premarket trading.
BITCOIN TANKS 10% AFTER ELON MUSK SAYS PRICES SEEM HIGH
Bitcoin slid Monday, pausing its stunning rally after Elon Musk said prices “seem high.” The world’s most valuable cryptocurrency sank over 10% to a price of $51,993 Monday morning, according to data from Coin Metrics. At one point, bitcoin had dipped below the $50,000 level, falling as low as $47,700.
CETERA LAUNCHES GROWTH360 PROGRAM
Cetera Financial Group, one of the industry’s largest networks of financial professionals, today announced the launch of Growth360, a strategic, peer-based methodology to help its affiliates grow the value of their businesses. The Growth360 methodology enables Cetera financial professionals to learn from – and incorporate – the successes of their fastest-growing peers. Growth360 provides a framework for advisors to benchmark their own practices against those of their fastest-growing colleagues. This will empower Cetera financial professionals to identify high-impact growth levers and implement an action plan that is aligned with their broader business goals.
RAILSBANK SHAPES THE FUTURE OF FINANCE WITH LAUNCH OF NEW CATEGORY AND VISION AT WEB SUMMIT
Railsbank, the leading global Embedded Finance platform, has today launched a new industry category that is set to drive the next wave of innovation within financial services. Known as Embedded Finance Experiences, the new category and vision represents the next phase of growth for embedded finance, moving away from basic banking, card or financial products to deeper and richer financial experiences that are seamlessly part of a brand’s customer journey.
Gone are the days where the consumer needs to visit a finance provider; embedded finance experiences deliver a financial product at a highly relevant moment to the consumer.
WEALTHFACE LAUNCHES ADVANCED TRADING PLATFORM
Wealthface, an Investment management company, announced today the launching of its online trading platform for active investors in the Middle East and the United States with the option of allowing clients to build their own portfolio, powered by a factor investing advanced algorithms.
Wealthface offers expert investment services through a blend of investment options, advanced Fintech and professional human expertise. It is licensed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and ADGM’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA). Its partnership with the US heavyweights “DriveWealth” will enable Wealthface clients to trade US stocks at a low cost.
COLT TECHNOLOGY SERVICES EXPANDS ITS CAPITAL MARKETS OFFERING INTO LATIN AMERICA
Colt Technology Services recently announced that it is expanding its capital markets offering into Latin America, giving customers from the USA, Europe, and APAC cost effective, low latency access to B3 – one of the world’s largest financial market infrastructure companies and the largest in the region – via Colt PrizmNet.
By continuing to strengthen its coverage in the Americas, Colt is providing global capital market data vendors and trading firms with simpler, more cost-effective access to critical venues in the region. This expansion makes Colt one of the first financial extranet providers to offer access to B3 from all of its 30+ Global PrizmNet PoPs and exchange colocation venues and to on net clients across its global capital markets ecosystem of 160+ exchanges, venues, and service providers, and 10,000+ participants.
CLEVA LAUNCHES TO BRING FINTECH TO THE CARE SECTOR
Cleva, a fintech developed for the home care sector, today launched its payments system for home care agencies – bringing a safe, quick and easy way for carers to shop and handle expenses for people under their care using a single card, and removing the hassle and admin of using cash.
The new system brings proven technology developed by a leading UK-fintech to a whole new market, enabling care agency staff to spend more time looking after the clients they care for, and ensuring transparency of payments for both those under care and their families.
JEEVES, THE FINTECH BUILT FOR GLOBAL COMPANIES, LAUNCHES ITS ALL-IN-ONE CORPORATE CARD AND CAPITAL FINANCING SERVICES FOR HIGH-GROWTH STARTUPS IN CANADA
Jeeves, the all-in-one expense management platform for global startups, announced today that it has officially launched its product and services in Canada. This expansion into the Canadian market follows the company’s highly successful funding rounds of a Series A at $31 million USD followed by a Series B of $57M. Both rounds were completed in 2021 in less than 90 days of each other for a total raise of $183M USD, and a valuation of more than $500M USD. The Canadian launch is the latest in a momentous year of growth for the company.
DISCOVERY DATA LAUNCHES ADVISOR INTENT INDICES POWERED BY ADVISORTARGET TO TRACK FINANCIAL ADVISOR BUYING INTENT TRENDS
Discovery Data, the market leader in data, insights, and analytics for the financial services and insurance industries, announced today that it has co-developed with AdvisorTarget its new Advisor Intent Indices. Measuring financial advisor buying intent and tracking changes in advisor interest on specific industry topics over time, Advisor Intent Indices empower product distributors, recruiters, marketers, and data scientists with highly accurate first-party information on industry-level and advisor-level intent in near real-time.
The Advisor Intent Indices use a scoring model to compare advisors’ overall engagement with financial news to individual engagement, providing month-to-month trends for gauging changes in advisor interest. With a range from 0 to 200, the score indicates the level of interest on topics such as Recruiting, Real Estate Equities, and Muni and High Yield Bonds. For instance, a Real Estate Equities index level of 195 would indicate overwhelming interest on this topic.
WEIS MARKETS SELECTED COLLABORATIVE SOLUTIONS TO DEPLOY WORKDAY FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT AND WORKDAY HUMAN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT
Weis Markets, Inc. today announced that the company has selected Collaborative Solutions, a Workday services partner, to deploy Workday Financial Management and Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) to drive future business value.
Workday Financial Management and Workday HCM support a full range of financial and people-based processes and help provide real-time operational visibility, along with the speed and agility to adapt to business growth and change.