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GUIDEHOUSE AND ONESTREAM SOFTWARE ANNOUNCE STRATEGIC ALLIANCE TO HELP ORGANIZATIONS DRIVE FINANCE TRANSFORMATION EFFORTS
Guidehouse, a leading global provider of consulting services to the public and commercial markets, today announced it has entered into a strategic alliance with OneStream Software, a leader in corporate performance management (CPM) solutions for the world’s leading enterprises, to provide intelligent finance solutions that unify and streamline processes through one platform.
The strategic alliance will leverage Guidehouse’s expertise as a leading consulting services provider supporting clients in both the public and commercial markets and OneStream’s unified and cloud-based CPM software platform to support activities ranging from project delivery to marketing and strategic business collaboration. Through the alliance, clients can optimize their resources and accelerate delivery of a comprehensive solution to address their complex corporate performance needs.
AEP RELEASES SUSTAINABLE FINANCE FRAMEWORK
American Electric Power (Nasdaq: AEP) has developed a Sustainable Finance Framework, which will allow the company and its subsidiaries to issue green, social and sustainability bonds, loans or other financial instruments and allocate the funds to investments that enable positive social and environmental change.
The framework strengthens the link between AEP’s finance strategy and its clean energy commitments and social values. Net proceeds from the instruments will be used by AEP or its subsidiaries to finance or refinance, in whole or in part, new or existing projects or assets that support renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean transportation, access to essential services and socioeconomic advancement and empowerment. The framework aligns with eight of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: quality education; gender equality; affordable and clean energy; decent work and economic growth; industry, innovation and infrastructure; reduced inequalities; sustainable cities and communities; and climate action. AEP appointed Sustainalytics to provide a second-party opinion on the framework, and Credit Agricole CIB advised AEP on the development of the framework.
FINOS WELCOMES FIVE NEW MEMBERS BOLSTERING FINTECH, FINANCIAL SERVICES, OPEN SOURCE AND REGTECH REPRESENTATION AT THE FOUNDATION
Recent adoption of collaborative open source strategies across financial services and fintech is a direct result of the demand to solve business problems in order to stay competitive. The Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS) is the catalyst for this movement and today announced that five new members have joined the foundation, which is evidence of increased adoption. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, CloudLinux, Digital Asset and EGAR Global join as silver members and Canadian RegTech Association joins as an associate member. Each organization provides unique value in different ways from regtech leadership to cloud innovation to distributed ledger technology for the financial open source community and will ultimately further adoption of open source strategies within the industry.
SENSIBILL AND CAARY PARTNER TO BRING ROBUST DIGITAL FINANCE SOLUTION TO SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES
Sensibill, the leading provider of everyday financial tools and SKU-level insights, and CAARY, a new credit and financial platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), today announced their partnership. Together, the companies will offer a seamless, end-to-end financial services solution for SMEs that includes credit, payment solutions, receipt capture, expense management and automated reconciliation.
“We were looking for a strong partner with a progressive approach to round out our platform,” said John MacKinlay, CEO of CAARY. “With Sensibill, our customers have access to a leading digital receipt management solution as well as deep, contextual insights to proactively identify their financial needs and spending habits. This provides huge opportunities for SMEs to save money and optimize spend.”
FIGURE ANNOUNCES MERGER WITH TOP MORTGAGE LENDER HOMEBRIDGE FINANCIAL SERVICES
Figure Technologies, Inc. (Figure™), a leader in transforming financial services through the power of blockchain technology, today announced it has signed an agreement to merge with Homebridge Financial Services in a landmark deal that will reshape the technology landscape of the nation’s mortgage industry.
“We are bringing together the most robust, powerful and efficient technology ever seen in lending and pairing that with a $25 billion a year loan originator with 150,000 customers who we can introduce to new payment and lending products,” said Mike Cagney, co-founder and CEO of Figure. “We’re going to deliver to this all-star loan origination team at Homebridge a tech platform on Provenance Blockchain that is going to double their capacity for fulfilling loans.”
HUAWEI VOWS TO ENABLE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM-BASED FINANCE IN APAC
Huawei on July 29, 2021 held its first virtual Asia-Pacific Intelligent Finance Summit 2021, with the theme “Accelerate Digital Transformation in Banking, New Value Together”. As economies across the Asia-Pacific region continue to recover and rebound, leading banks and financial institutions are accelerating digital transformation, seizing new digitalization opportunities to reinvent themselves for what the future holds.
This event attracted more than 1,300 financial industry customers, partners, industry experts and media across Asia-Pacific regions. Huawei is honored to invite financial industry core customers and partners like BDO Unibank, KASIKORN Business – Technology Group (KBTG), PwC and IDC to participate in the panel discussion and share their experiences on how they utilize technology to upgrade the industry and range of services on offer by constructing an ecosystem that is agile and intelligent, and ultimately transform themselves into digital-capable eco-enterprises.
SYMPHONY ACQUIRES STREETLINX TO OFFER THE MOST COMPLETE AND SECURE VERIFIED IDENTITY DIRECTORY IN FINANCIAL SERVICES
Symphony- the leading markets’ infrastructure and technology platform – will now offer the most complete and secure verified directory in the financial services industry as it has acquired the counterparty mapping platform StreetLinx. This acquisition adds over 200 institutional counterparties to the more than 1000 institutions already served by Symphony.
“As we accelerate from directory to identity solutions, Streetlinx brings Symphony a full spectrum of identity-verified investment professionals, including portfolio managers, traders, research analysts and sales teams that will enrich Symphony’s already established and active community of over half a million financial professionals. We are proud to continue to add value to our user community and the industry as a whole”, said Symphony CEO Brad Levy.
TERRANOVA CAPITAL ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF SPAC BACKSTOP AND DESPAC FINANCE PLATFORM.
TerraNova Capital Structured Finance (“TerraNova Capital”), the credit advisory and special purpose finance division of TerraNova Capital Equities, Inc. today announced the launch of their SPAC Backstop and deSPAC finance platform. The TerraNova finance platform will help SPACs identify structured finance solutions in conjunction or in place of PIPE financing and redemption shortfalls.
“With over 200 SPACs seeking to execute completion of their target deSPAC and mergers, many SPACs are concerned about the ongoing constraints in the PIPE Market as well as redemptions,” stated Todd Coffin, Head of Structured Finance.
BANKFIRST CAPITAL CORPORATION COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF THE CITIZENS BANK OF FAYETTE
BankFirst Capital Corporation, parent of BankFirst Financial Services (the “Bank”), today announced the completion of its acquisition of The Citizens Bank of Fayette, Fayette, Alabama (“Citizens Bank”) from F.B.H. Corporation, an Alabama corporation (“F.B.H.”). The acquisition results in BankFirst having 32 offices serving Mississippi and Alabama, with total assets of approximately $2.0 billion, gross loans of approximately $1.2 billion, and total deposits of approximately $1.8 billion.
FUTURE FINTECH ANNOUNCES NEW BLOCKCHAIN DIVISION
Future FinTech Group Inc. , a leading blockchain-based e-commerce business and a fintech service provider, announced today that the Company has established a new blockchain division that will manage its existing blockchain sector business which will include the further formulation and execution of its strategic growth plan.
Mr. Zhi Yan has been appointed as the president of the new division to direct the Company’s blockchain business. At present, the blockchain division’s primary mission will be to develop, operate and manage the Company’s previously announced bitcoin mining farm plans in the United States and Paraguay, and to coordinate its announced Dubai-based digital currency trading service and crypto asset management business via its FTFT Capital Investments LLC subsidiary. Mr. Yan has extensive experience in blockchain and cryptocurrency. He has been general manager of Cloud Chain Network Technology (Tianjin) Co., Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company since February 2020 and served as the Chief Technology Officer of the Company between February 2018 and February 2020. Mr. Yan led the development of the real-name blockchain based e-commerce platform of the Company, Chain Cloud Mall.
AZURE POWER: OPERATIONAL AND FINANCIAL UPDATE
Azure Power Global Limited , a leading independent renewable power producer in India, today announced certain operational and financial updates in connection with the Rights Offering that was also announced today.
This is not an offer to sell or purchase nor the solicitation of an offer to sell or purchase securities and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any state or jurisdiction in which, or to any person to whom such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.
MONTFORT AG OPENS ITS REGULATED DIGITAL ASSETS TRADING PLATFORM TO THE PUBLIC
Monfort AG, FinTech company offering products and services for the investment and digital assets sector, announced today that its flagship product, the trading platform, is now available to business users and institutions in eligible jurisdictions within Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. The trading platform leverages asset management tools in blockchain space with regulatory compliance frameworks, giving institutional investors access to low-cost transactions and greater liquidity.
AIZEN ‘CREDITCONNECT’, NEW PARADIGM FOR AI BANKING
People can see the banking democratization trend, where bigtechs and fintechs present a new form of threat to traditional banks. AIZEN, which ranked second in the Global Category of MAS FinTech Awards 2020 (Singapore FinTech Festival, MAS FinTech Awards) alongside Swiss Re (insurance) and BNY Mellon (banking), announced that it would provide banking-as-a-service for banks and data platforms.
AIZEN is a financial techonology (fintech) company that made Artificial Intelligence (AI) financial innovations in Korea, Singapore, and Vietnam within five years since its establishment by the financial and AI experts from global companies. AIZEN developed the finance-specialized, machine-learning automated solution called “ABACUS” to commence the digitization project for financial companies. AIZEN has been selected as the second placer globally at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) FinTech Awards, the first placer at the 2020 Hong Kong FinTech Week, the Top Ten FinTechs by Standard Chartered Hong Kong, and the cool vendor in AI for FinTech at the Gartner Cool Vendor 2018, accelerating its potential growth rapidly. Furthermore, AIZEN has been selected as the Top Ten FinTechs for responsible AI companies, along with VISA Inc., Suite of analytics software (SAS) Institute, Experian PLC, and Ernst & Young Global Ltd. AIZEN is expanding its businesses into Vietnam and Indonesia with the “CreditConnect” launch, an AI-based data-combined banking service that enlarges the business model.
INNOVATION, FINTECH AND THE FUTURE OF INVESTING
The global reach of finance is undeniable. Around 15 billion shares of stock are traded every day, while 100 million credit card transactions occur daily. The incredible capacity of global monetary networks is only made possible by evolving, innovative technologies that connect parties around the world and create never-before-seen financial instruments.
As finance and technology continue to coalesce, the rise of new asset classes is set to change the industry forever. Not only are new alternative asset products being offered as a result of technology, the invest-tech platforms that make them possible have already altered the way ESG and impact investing is done.
HALLMARK FINANCIAL ANNOUNCES DECISION TO DISCONTINUE PURSUIT OF IPO TO SEPARATE SPECIALTY COMMERCIAL BUSINESS
Hallmark Financial Services, Inc. , a property and casualty insurance company comprised of three business segments (Specialty Commercial, Standard Commercial, and Personal), today announced that it is no longer actively pursuing the previously announced separation of its Specialty Commercial business segment. As a result, the Company does not intend to proceed with the previously announced initial public offering of the specialty commercial business.
Current evaluations by Hallmark’s board of directors note the significant progress achieved over the past 18 months, including the successful completion of a loss portfolio transfer transaction, improved underlying operating results (including pre-tax income of $14.6 million and 6% growth in book value per share for the nine months ended September 30, 2021), and A.M. Best’s recent affirmation of Hallmark’s Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A- (Excellent).
MOGO LAUNCHES MOGOTRADE COMMISSION-FREE STOCK TRADING APP
Mogo Inc., a digital payments and financial technology company, today announced the launch and phased rollout of MogoTrade, a stock trading app that sets a new bar for commission-free trading in Canada.
The MogoTrade app is now available for download through the App Store and on Google Play. Members get immediate access to free live-streaming stock prices and will be added to the waitlist for access to the commission-free trading feature, which is being released in a phased rollout through Q1 2022.