The joint venture, incorporated in Switzerland, combines both blockchain-based infrastructure and digital cash technologies to address the key requirements for Central Bank Digital Currencies, including privacy, security, financial inclusion, resilience and more – paving the way for the development and launch of a secure and scalable environment for all central banks to deploy digital currencies.

“With more than 80% of the world’s central banks already considering launching a Central Bank Digital Currency, it’s critical now more than ever to provide a viable path to capitalize on the wealth of opportunities digital currencies offer,” said Itai Avneri, deputy CEO of INX. “We are excited to collaborate with SICPA and put our unique holistic solution for wholesale and retail CBDC to work as we strive together to pioneer the new digital economy around the world.”

INX’s team of CBDC and blockchain technologists will work with SICPA’s digital team to establish solutions for CBDCs and the supporting ecosystems to assist clients in bolstering monetary sovereignty and efficiently growing the overall country GDP. The combined team will raise the bar in delivering innovative approaches to key requirements issued by central banks and their ecosystems, like compliance, scalability, cross-border transactions and programmability. Many of the complex and advanced security features developed by SICPA will find application in the development of the CBDC ecosystem.

“In any solution we offer to our customers and partners, we are committed to ensuring that it is efficient, inclusive, secure and enables trustworthy and privacy-compliant transactions” said Philippe Amon, CEO and Chairman of SICPA. “By collaborating with INX through this joint venture, we are ensuring that these cardinal virtues of cash will be equally true for the CBDC solutions that will complement the range of monetary solutions available to central banks.”

A longstanding trusted partner and advisor to central banks around the world, SICPA has robust expertise in authentication, identification and security solutions, strong digital capabilities, and extensive knowledge of the physical cash ecosystem that allows for the development of new innovative forgery-proof security features to protect monetary sovereignty.

This partnership, signed Friday, Dec 16th, is a pre-planned step to launch the agreement stated in the MOU between the two parties, signed in June 2022.

Vivid Money could be considered as a Revolut competitor designed specifically for the Eurozone. Built on top of Solarisbank for the banking infrastructure, the company lets you send, receive, spend, invest and save money in different ways.

When you create an account, you get a German IBAN that starts with DE as well as a metal card. There are no card details on the card itself — everything is available in the app instead. Like other fintech startups, Vivid Money lets you control your card from the app — you can lock it and unlock it, add it to Google Pay and Apple Pay, etc.

After that, you can top up your account and hold dozens of different currencies. When you pay with your card abroad, the startup applies a small mark-up on the current exchange rate — you should get a better exchange rate than what you usually get with a regular bank.

In addition to this fairly standard feature set, Vivid Money offers stock trading with fractional shares. You can invest in stocks and ETFs and there’s no commission. Similarly, you can buy, hold and share cryptocurrencies from the app. The startup has partnered with CM Equity AG for those features.

The company also has a cashback program and a premium subscription for €9.90 per month. Paid users get higher limits on free cash withdrawals, the ability to create a virtual card, support for additional currencies and better cashback rewards.

Finally, users can create sub-accounts called pockets. You can move money around from one pocket to another and add other users to your pockets. Each pocket has its own IBAN, which means that you can pay for certain bills with a separate pocket. You can also associate your card with a specific pocket for upcoming purchases.

Vivid Money has managed to add a ton of features in no time. It now has a ton of money on its bank account. Now let’s see if it can attract a significant user base to compete with other, well-established European fintech players.

The feature will also facilitate use of tap-to-pay feature on near-field communications (NFC)-enabled point of sale (PoS) terminals and online merchants, a statement said.

“Working in close partnership with Visa and banking partners, this feature is now available to all users of Axis and SBI Card, with Kotak and more banks expected to follow suit very soon,” it added.

The feature also works with online merchants, delivering more native and seamless OTP experiences without any redirects to 3D secure sites, the statement said.

To enable the tap and pay feature using the smartphone phone, users will have to do a one-time set up by entering their card details and follow it by entering the OTP they get from the bank to add their card to the Google Pay app.

After the registration, the feature can be used to make payments at NFC-enabled terminals.

The statement said The feature will also facilitate use of tap-to-pay feature on near-field communications (NFC)-enabled point of sale (PoS) terminals and online merchants

“We’re committed to offer the most secure payments experience to our growing base of users, and tokenisation helps to replace sensitive data such as credit and debit card numbers with tokens, eliminating any chances of fraud,” Sajith Sivanandan, Business Head Google Pay and Next Billion Users – India, said.

He added that the service is already live for SBI Card and Axis card holders with Visa payments network, and the company is working closely with Kotak and other banking partners to further expand the adoption of card-based payments with tokenisation in India.

“It is the culmination of months of collaboration between Google and Visa that has helped us roll out this global first initiative for Google Pay in India. Made in India for millions of mobile first consumers, there couldn’t have been a better time to introduce this tokenised and contactless form of payment,” TR Ramachandran, Group Country Manager, Visa, India & South Asia said.

He added that Visa recently crossed over 1 billion token credentials globally and with Google Pay live in India, the company expects these numbers to rise significantly.

Ashwini Kumar Tewari, MD and CEO of SBI Card said the collaboration with Google Pay will enable the company to offer safe, convenient digital payment solutions to a vast user base.

“As smartphone penetration in India soars, credit cards have also changed form to reside securely on the mobile phone and our partnership with Google opens up a new, secure and seamless payment route for our customers using smartphones,” he added.

Centotrenta Servicing S.p.A, an Italian financial services company, currently manages approximately 200 securitization transactions per year in Italy with a combined value of 15.6 billion euros. As a servicer, Centotrenta Servicing is responsible for servicing the portfolio, collecting the receivables, providing cash and payment services, and monitoring the compliance of the securitization transaction with applicable laws and the prospectus.

Starting February 2020, the HyperMast STS platform project enters a phase of industrialization, and additional network participants including paying agents, originators, servicers, intermediaries, credit institutions and investors, law firms and technology companies are encouraged to join.

The HyperMast STS platform aims to provide the financial market with a tool to connect the entire ecosystem, made up of originators, servicers, intermediaries, credit institutions and investors –and allow them to interact in the different phases of the securitization operation in a transparent, secure and traceable way.

Based on Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), HyperMast STS offers real advantages for the stakeholders of the operations, providing them with a greater level of interaction between them, a greater sharing of processes and, greater confidence in the processes and degree of guarantee of the financial assets.

In addition to the technology partners IBM and Blockchain Reply, Reply Group companies specialized in innovative projects based on DLT technology, they are part of the ecosystem led by Centotrenta Servicing and including BNP Paribas Securities Services as account and paying agent bank, other banks, advisors and prestigious law firms.

The choice of the IBM Blockchain Platform was due to its robustness and reliability, and its capabilities when creating DLT permissioned environments, combining efficiency, operational versatility with a hybrid cloud model, and data privacy control.

The platform addresses the core processes in securitization operations such as forming and signing the initial contracts (block sale), and the contracts underlying the securities issuance activities (block issue), and the definition of a “smart contract”.

The prototype was completed in November 2019 and addressed several key issues, such as possible ways of interfacing with the Bank of Italy systems (Infostat, FE129), issues related to security and user profiling, data protection management and digital signature mechanisms that allow the various actors to sign the HyperMast STS platform regulations and perform onboarding according to their role.

About Centotrenta Servicing

Centotrenta Servicing S.p.A. is a servicer registered in the Register of Financial Intermediaries no. 13 and performs exclusively “master servicing” activities, thus representing a complete guarantee role in structured finance transactions pursuant to Law no. 130/1999. This guarantee function is effectively exercisable without any conflict of interest, since none of the Centotrenta Group companies carries out collection and/or investment activities on the market.

Centotrenta Servicing S.p.A. currently manages approximately 200 securitization transactions. The assets in the managed portfolios include performing loans, non-performing loans, leasing, residential and commercial mortgages, consumer credit, trade receivables, receivables from the Public Administration and other assets. Since the date of the Bank of Italy’s authorization, Centotrenta Servicing S.p.A. has completed over 1,000 portfolio purchases. Assets currently managed as servicers amount to 15.6 billion euros (figures updated to November 2019). During 2019, Centotrenta Servicing S.p.A. was the operator that promoted the largest number of new SPVs in Italy, with a corresponding market share of 29% (source: Bankit – SVC List).

“MNOs are evolving to be both tech companies and financial providers by integrating digital payment options such as mobile wallets and in-app purchases, with data insights that enable them to make smarter decisions. Mastercard sees great promise in partnering with MNOs to widen their pool of services so as to better serve existing consumers, gain new consumers and develop new business opportunities,” said Benjamin Gilbey, Senior Vice President, Digital Payments and Labs, Asia Pacific, Mastercard. “This is especially beneficial in Asia Pacific where many emerging markets are still largely underserved and unbanked while consumers in developed markets are demanding real-time access to quick and convenient payment experiences.”

To support MNOs in efforts to evolve their operations and become a more complete digital player, Mastercard has introduced a package of data-driven digital services that enable fast, simple and secure digital payment experiences across devices and channels. Mastercard is leveraging its analytic capabilities and innovations in areas such as artificial intelligence to empower mobile network operators to broaden their businesses in the following ways:

Harnessing Data Analytics and Insights – Mastercard is working with MNOs to make their data actionable and build the digital infrastructure that will deliver value and personalized experiences to consumers through faster, safer and more convenient services
Optimizing Core Business – MNOs can build on the company’s digital payments platform Masterpass to deliver a more seamless consumer experience with the acceptance of such payments

Diversifying Revenues – Mastercard’s suite of solutions and products like direct carrier billing and QR-based payments can help monetize existing telecommunications assets and expand their services

Across the Asia Pacific region, a number of Mastercard’s mobile solutions are already making a difference. In emerging market Vietnam, Mastercard’s collaboration with Military Bank, one of the country’s largest banks, enabled leading MNO Viettel Telecom to offer more than three million consumers access to physical and virtual prepaid cards. Of those customers, 700,000 have requested a prepaid companion card to support every day spending. This empowers consumers – a number of whom were unbanked – to make person-to-person money transfers and payments for utility and airline bills.

In Taiwan, Mastercard worked with Chunghwa Telecom, the nation’s largest integrated telecommunications services company, to bring contactless payments to consumers with the digital “Hami Wallet”. Catering to the demands of the Taiwan’s burgeoning e-payments scene, the wallet brings convenience to consumers as their go-to payment pick for shopping, public transport and travel.

In Indonesia, the payments technology company, Indonesian Red Cross Society, and the American Red Cross leveraged Mastercard Send and local telecommunications partner Indosat Ooredoo to distribute funds to beneficiaries during times of need via their digital wallet, empowering them to spend their aid money on what they need most. Mastercard Send is a first-of-its-kind interoperable global platform that enables money transfers to be made securely and within seconds.

About Mastercard
Mastercard , www.mastercard.com, is a technology company in the global payments industry. Our global payments processing network connects consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. Mastercard products and solutions make everyday commerce activities – such as shopping, traveling, running a business and managing finances – easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone.

RBI’s Asia Trailblazer is a highly anticipated event for 2018 as it will provide a platform for strategic executives to evaluate avenues for growth and innovation and offers attendees an opportunity to explore, compare and decide on their future technology investments.

The Day Summit

With modernisation changing the face of banking, the day summit will focus on 3 key themes to dissect challenges, pinpoint opportunities and address the practical considerations for achieving the objective of remaining a relevant and engaging bank.

The core themes to be explored for 2018 include:

• Creating impactful customer experiences
• Leveraging on technological progress
• Identifying profitable new client segments

The topics to be explored will underpin the ongoing objectives of retail banks in remaining competitive, becoming future-proof and determining the metrics available to ensure success.

Case study presentations, interactive discussions and debates about these key themes from the most senior and experienced individuals and institutions in the sector, will benefit the attending delegates greatly.

The Awards Gala Dinner

Following a jam-packed day of networking and innovative content, the evening Awards Gala Dinner will celebrate the most innovative, impressive and successful initiatives from Retail Banks over the past year.

32 awards will be given for wide-ranging achievements and will look to highlight leaders in the industry and their efforts to progress the Retail Banking sector. The award categories are as follows:

• Product and Service Awards
• Process and Strategy Awards
• Marketing and Communication Awards
• Channel Innovation Awards
• People Awards
• Trailblazer Awards

For 2018, there are 11 exciting new competitive awards for institutions to compete for, including:

• Best Credit Scoring Innovation
• Best Savings Plan Offering
• Best Payments Innovation
• Best Retirement Product or Service Initiative
• Best Innovation Programme
• Most Creative Marketing Collaboration
• Best App for Customer Experience
• Best Mobile Wallet Initiative
• Excellence in OmniChannel Integration
• Excellence in Employee Engagement

To find out more about the RBI Asia Trailblazer Summit and Awards visit our website here: http://www.arena-international.com/rbi/ or email us at events@arena-international.com

Telkom understands the business environment of their customers is ever changing. South Africa is currently facing an economic recession which was followed by the downgrade of South Africa’s investment ratings to junk status by Moody, Standard & Poor and Fitch. This has sparked fears of increased liquidations and insolvencies among small and medium businesses leading them to enter a belt tightening period where costs in their business are put under pressure.

To aid the sustainability of small and medium businesses, Telkom is reducing the cost to communicate by offering businesses Uncapped Internet Data and Unlimited on-net Voice for both local and long distance with an exceptional offnet call rate. This includes Unlimited Calling from Telkom to Telkom & Telkom Mobile numbers, with a 50c call rate to offnet destinations and a 79c call rate to 12 predefined international fixed line destinations.

In addition, businesses will also receive the value-added benefits of CallAnswer, IdentiCall and WaitingCall as well as 1GB/2GB/3GB Telkom Internet Mobile data (dependant on package), a 3G Dongle, DSL/Fibre Router and Always on Voice Failover on DSL.

Telkom has been taking a stand against the high cost of broadband for some time now. It understands that the growth of South Africa’s data-driven economy is constrained by high data and communication costs, which affects businesses whose survival depends on communication.

“Businesses in South Africa want more affordable, high speed connections, and effective and efficient communication means to assist in accelerating the growth of their business. Our Telkom Unlimited Business offering will provide both our existing and new customers with new opportunities for innovation, expansion, and e-commerce. We are reducing the cost to communicate and providing businesses with greater internet access,” said Telkom Consumer CEO Attila Vitai.

“Our recently launched Unlimited Home offering to fixed line customers gives South Africans the freedom they need to communicate conveniently and cost-effectively. Unlimited Business extends our commitment of affordability to established and emerging businesses. We are at the forefront of reducing communication costs and Telkom has taken another big step to expand access together with high-speed internet which will contribute to sustainability of businesses, foster economic growth and job creation,” he said.

For further enquiries, please contact:

Leigh-Ann Francis
Specialist: Media Relations
Group Communication
Tel: +27 12 642 1728
Mobile: +27 81 391 4780
Email: francilm@telkom.co.za

ABOUT TELKOM:

Telkom is a leading information and communications technology services provider in South Africa. We had consolidated operating revenue of R41 billion and normalised profit after tax of R3 907 million for the year ended 31 March 2017. Total assets amounted to R48.0 billion and equity attributable to the owners of Telkom to R27.6 billion as of 31 March 2017.

As of 31 March 2017, we had approximately 3.0 million telephone access lines in service and 1,329,450 ports connected via MSAN access. We offer business, residential and payphone customers a wide range of services and products, including:

fixed-line retail voice services using PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) lines, including ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) lines, and the sale of subscription based value-added voice services and calling plans;

fixed-line customer premises equipment rental and sales services both voice and data needs and these include PABX, Computers, Routers, Modems, Telephone handsets and other ancillary equipment;

interconnection services, including terminating and transiting traffic from South African mobile operators, as well as from international operators and transiting traffic from mobile to international destinations;

fixed-line data services, including domestic and international data transmission services, such as point-to-point leased lines, ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line) services, packet-based services, managed data networking services and internet access and related information technology services;

Data Centre Operations includes e-commerce, application service provider, hosting, data storage, e-mail and security services;

W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), a 3G next generation network, including fixed voice services, data services and nomadic voice services;

mobile communication services, including voice services, data services and handset sales through our mobile brand called Telkom Mobile;

information technology services including converged communication, IT service solutions, application solutions, IT hardware and software and industrial technology service sales locally, in seven African countries, the UK and Dubai through Business Connexion Group; and other services including directory services, through Trudon (Pty) Ltd, wireless data services, through Swiftnet (Pty) Ltd.

Convergence is one of our key strategic initiatives in building a sustainable future for Telkom. We will lead the provision of converged services in South Africa in support of our mission statement: Seamlessly connecting people to a better life.

To help ensure that product markdowns resonate with value-seeking customers while maximizing profits for across all of its retail locations relating to Debenhams Department Stores, Next Stores, Oviesse Stores, Peacocks Stores and Uber Stores.
Product pricing mark downs are a common practice for retailers today. The challenge is identifying the ideal price point and timing of these discounts to deliver cost-conscious customers great deals while avoiding the need to sell items at a loss that erodes potential profits. This was precisely the issue for Ermes Group, which decided to move from a rather manual approach to IBM’s cloud-based Watson Price Optimization capabilities.

Working with IBM, Ermes is now able to automatically determine which specific products in each store should be marked down due to stagnant sales, what the new price should be and when the reduction should take place. Previously, teams had to manually go line by line for every product to determine how it was performing and if they should put it on sale. Since going live with IBM, Ermes has significantly streamlined its retail pricing strategy while increasing profits.

“Due to shifts in styles and consumer demands, product markdowns are a reality that all retailers must face. The key is knowing both when to act and what price point will allow the business to still profit on each item left in stock,” said Sophocles Sophocleous, Purchasing Manager of Ermes Department Stores Plc. “With IBM’s cloud offering, our merchandising team can easily and quickly determine which products are lagging in sales and what steps we need to take to get these items moving off the shelf.”

“Effective customer engagement doesn’t just happen. It comes from a commitment to several factors, from personalized offers and flawless services to delivering value. Retailers must deliver value, but it cannot come at the expense of the bottom line,” said Harriet Green, General Manager, IBM Watson Customer Engagement. “IBM has decades of experience in working with leading retailers around the world, helping them not just align to the needs of their customers but to best business decisions, those that put them on the path for long-term success.”

IBM recently released a new study focused on Generation Z, a group that possesses $44 billion in spending power. According to the study, the majority of Generation Z make purchases in the store. Of this group, 66 percent do so because they believe they get good deals and value for their money.

Delivering in-store value to customers has always been a priority for the Ermes Group. However, the company was exhausting significant time and manpower when it came to markdowns. As a result, markdowns were often put in place when product demand was on the decline which forced teams to increase the savings to move stock. While these low prices satisfied the growing number deal-seeking Generation Z shoppers, they represented significant loss in profits for the retailer.

IBM Price Optimization automatically monitors a product’s cost and sales and then alerts the retailers to generate a promotion before demand begins to wane. In addition to increasing profits, Ermes Group has been able to free merchandisers and buyers to focus on other key areas such as in- season performance monitoring and being reactive in a timely as well as efficient manner.

IBM Watson Customer Engagement provides organizations across all industries and of all sizes with the capabilities to integrate cognitive into its current systems to more effectively engage with customers when and how they need to.

Today’s announcement follows the release of IBM’s new IBV study titled, “Uniquely Generation Z: What brands should know about today’s Gen Z consumers.” The
study surveyed 15,600 consumers ages 13-21 in 16 countries across six continents in an effort to understand Generation Z and what drives them in choosing a brand. The full report can be accessed here.

About Ermes Group
The Ermes Group is a member of The CTC Group, the leading and most diversified private Group in Cyprus with an annual turnover of 300 million. The CTC Group is also one of the largest employers in Cyprus. Today Ermes is the leading retail company in Cyprus in Apparel, Cosmetics, DIY and Electronics operating more than 70 retail shops. Ermes Fashion brands portfolio includes Debenhams, NEXT, Oviesse, Forever 21, Armani Exchange, Tommy Hilfiger, Diesel, Superdry, Desigual, Pepe jeans, Springfield, Cortefiel, Oasis, Warehouse and many more!

About IBM Watson Customer Engagement
IBM powers a full spectrum of cognitive engagement offerings delivered as a service and on premise for more 17,000 companies around the world. These businesses include 7 of the top 10 companies on the Fortune 500. and companies such as 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Yoox Net-a-Porter, Moosejaw Mountaineering, The North Face, Luxottica, The Works UK and hhgregg. For more information follow us at @IBMforMarketing or @IBMCommerce and #WatsonCE.

Contact(s) information
Doug Fraim
IBM Media Relations
1 617-501-6376
dfraim@us.ibm.com

Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.6 percent, this number is expected to reach 6.1 million by 2017. The leading fleet management providers in terms of installed base in the CIS and Eastern Europe include diverse players from a number of countries. Belarus-based Gurtam is established as the leading fleet management software provider active across most countries in the region with more than 220,000 vehicles managed through its Wialon platform. Arvento Mobile Systems from Turkey and TechnoKom from Russia are moreover top-ranking telematics players on their respective domestic markets. Other major Russian solution providers include M2M Telematics, ENDS and Russian Navigation Technologies. These have all estimated installed bases in the range of 60,000–85,000 active units.

Berg Insight anticipates that the fleet management market in Eastern Europe and the CIS gradually will converge with the developments in Western Europe. “Eastern Europe is already today tracing the most developed European markets closely in terms of system functionality and service models”, said Rickard Andersson, Telecom Analyst, Berg Insight. “The major Russian solution providers are on the other hand still primarily serving large corporations with standalone systems whereas subscription services are mainly adopted by SMBs.” Mr. Andersson anticipates that web-based services based on recurring service fees will become the primary focus also for major enterprise fleets on the Russian market.

Another important trend on the European market is factory-fitment of OEM truck telematics. These systems are in general available also to customers in Eastern Europe and sometimes in the CIS. The local Russian manufacturers have however not yet embraced this development and the telematics activities so far remain limited to collaborations with aftermarket solution providers. Ultimately, the local truck manufacturers in the CIS are also expected to introduce proprietary telematics systems including vehicle tracking, remote diagnostics and other fleet management functionality. Market dynamics will foster this development, not the least due to the increasing competition from Western truck OEMs that aspire to gain market shares in this market.

Download report brochure: Fleet Management in Russia/CIS and Eastern Europe

About Berg Insight

Berg Insight offers premier business intelligence to the telecom industry. We produce concise reports providing key facts and strategic insights about pivotal developments in our focus areas. Our vision is to be the most valuable source of intelligence for our customers.