Media-Insert Communications

When fintech meets healthcare

Business and technology journalist Graham Jarvis reports on how cryptocurrencies and blockchain can improve access to healthcare.

Client: Decentr. Published by Healthtech World on 8th September 2021. Author: Graham Jarvis.

FINTECH NEWS: When Fintech Meets Healthcare: How can cryptocurrencies and blockchain improve access to healthcare?

Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are used in a wide array of new applications – including in healthcare. Fintech start-ups are the catalyst for many of these recent market innovations – and they aren’t just focused on the banking and financial services sector. While finance is necessary for individuals and organisations of all sizes, both can struggle to access it. Yet recent advances in Fintech suggest this disparity can be addressed by capturing the market value of data and repurposing it as payable “currency”. This radically new decentralised finance (DeFi) concept is one that many, including healthcare administrators, are starting to take seriously.

With the COVID-19 pandemic showing how critical it is to have access to high-quality healthcare, and with access to it in some parts of the world falling short because of poverty and other factors, the likes of the British Medical Journal (BMJ) are currently exploring how the obstacles to healthcare access can be overcome in Dominique Vervoort et al’s BMJ Innovations article, “Blockchain, health disparities and global health”.

Vervoort and his co-authors Camila R Guetter and Alexander W Peters write: “Health disparities remain vast around the world and are perpetuated by error-prone information technology systems, administrative inefficiencies and wasteful global health spending. Blockchain technology, a novel, distributed peer-to-peer ledger technology, is increasingly used in various industries to disintermediate, improve efficiency and transparency and reduce costs; however, its use in healthcare and global health has remained limited.”

Improve access to healthcare, read the complete article. 

Client: Decentr. Published by Techbullion on 6th September 2021. Author: Graham Jarvis.

EVs are First Step in Auto Insurance Transformation

Despite a slump in car sales during the pandemic, ING Group expects care sales to rebound by 8% in 2021.

However, EV insurance premiums are typically higher than those of other cars, demonstrating that they are riskier for insurers than being bound by a policy for a comparable ICE vehicle. This is because EVs are more expensive to repair – few workshops are qualified to fix them, parts are costly and unibody construction techniques lead to more cars being written off following low-speed crashes.

Nonetheless, David Williams, managing director, underwriting and technical services at AXA, finds that there has been an increase in the take-up of EVs. It’s slow but it’s progressing. He adds: “If you want to buy an EV, it’s more expensive than the internal combustion engine version. This will change – when you build more of something, the price comes down.”

Read the complete article to find out more about why electric vehicles are the first step in auto insurance transformation. 

Client: InformaTech, published by TU Automotive on 12 May 2021. Author/Journalist: Graham Jarvis.

SD-WAN: Why Banks Need WAN Acceleration Overlays

The Covid-19 pandemic has created a push to speed up digital transformation. There has also been the move to the working from home environment and embracing hybrid working as a concept, whereby employees work from home as well as in branch or at the office. This has led to a transformation in data flows and changes in bank processes to adapt to less face-to-face contact with customers. All of this has inspired the upgrading of IT infrastructure with many banks deploying or upgrading their SD-WANs.

Find out why banks need to WAN Acceleration Overlays by reading the complete article

Client: Trudy Darwin Communications for Bridgeworks Ltd. Byline: David Trossell, CEO and CTO of Bridgeworks Ltd. Published: 12th May 2021 . 

From insurance to cryptocurrencies in healthcare

Beyond his work with TU Automotive and Trudy Darwin Communications, between 2020 and 2022, Graham Jarvis - freelance business and technology journalist, wrote and edited insurtech reports for Intelligent Insurer; wrote articles on cryptocurrencies in healthcare; wrote about education; edited and wrote fleet management reports for ABAX; wrote about digital accessibility; wrote about cloud computing; wrote about customer experiences and customer management; wrote about connected, autonomous vehicles and smart cities. Other topics were also covered. 

What are the data protection challenges of managing compliance on private devices?

Examining how banks and finance organizations can prevent market abuse with personal mobile device surveillance, Mobilewatch CEO, Raili Maripuu speaks to ITProPortal.

Post-Brexit, the Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK has decided to call the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulations, ‘Frozen GDPR’. Raili Maripuu, CEO of regtech indoor positioning technology company Mobilewatch, says the key focus is to have clear guidelines and processes on the differences between dealing with cross-border data retention, transfer and storage in multi-site situations before and after 31 December 2020.

Here’s what the ICO has to say about it: “The term ‘Frozen GDPR’ is not an official title and it’s not used in the law itself. However, we think it’s a useful label to help you understand this part of the data protection regime. The ‘Frozen GDPR’ is the EU GDPR almost exactly as it existed on 31st December 2020. The only change is that Articles 60 to 76 of the EU GDPR (on co-operation and consistency) are deleted from the Frozen GDPR.”

Resolve the data protection challenges, read the complete article. 

Client: Trudy Darwin Communications for Mobilewatch. Originally published on IT Pro Portal (no longer publishing as the publication has merged with IT Pro magazine).

Regulatory Compliance: What are the market trends for indoor positioning technologies?

According to the Financial Times, ‘Bankers crave return of in-person trading floors’ because “the human factor matters”. Strengthened with effective personal mobile device surveillance, whether traders are on the trading floor or at home, they matter. However, there is also a role for technology to prevent market abuse. Human factors, such as trust, can’t prevent it.

In banking and finance – particularly on trading floors, trust is often considered to be at the core of maintaining and achieving compliance. The sector’s traditional approach involves implementing soft policies that are focused on mutual trust, which isn’t sufficient to prevent significant and costly regulatory breaches in regulated areas, such as trading floors. In fact, rather than focusing on trust, banks and financial organisations should predominantly concentrate on compliance.

Read the complete article on Global Banking and Finance Review. E-magazine version. 

Client: Trudy Darwin Communications for Mobilewatch. Author: Graham Jarvis.

Regtech: watching personal mobile devices in financial services, but why?

Market abuse is a hot topic that the banks prioritise on a daily basis implementing heavy surveillance measures with complex technologies.

However, with the advancement of the technology the new hot topic or one of those “elephant in the room” conversations banks like to avoid is the effectiveness of soft policies for monitoring personal mobile devices on trading floors. To avoid market abuse via personal mobiles and ultimately to help protect the consumer, banks and financial services organisations have to, and now can do, more.

The monitoring of personal mobile devices is carried out through “soft policies” which are based on trust rather than compliance. These are simply ineffective, especially now with traders returning to offices and revised layouts to account for social distancing. This provides a greater challenge for supervisors/spotters to identify breaches. With home working continuing for the foreseeable future, regulators and financial service organisations are not moving fast enough to mitigate this enhanced risk and ultimately protect the consumers.

The penalties for non-compliance aren’t just financial. A 2013 Insider Trading Policy of TherapeuticsMD Inc. reveals that, in the US, it can lead to a prison sentence of up to 20 years, a maximum criminal fine of up to $5 million and, for “non-natural persons” (such as an entity whose securities are publicly traded), the fine is up to $25 million.

Find out how to use regtech to prevent regulatory breaches with personal mobile devices on the trading floor, read the complete article. 

Client: Trudy Darwin Communications for Mobilewatch. Published by Fintech Futures on 2nd March 2021. Author: Graham Jarvis.

 

Building Insurance Business Using Data to Set Prices

TU-Automotive reported in November [2020] that General Motors is launching itself into the insurance market.

The aim is to use driving and vehicle data to set insurance prices employing its established OnStar service. This is the automaker’s connected-car service, which is installed on all GM vehicles in North America. Customers who sign up, agree to permit their driving habits to be tracked remotely. Drivers who obey speeding limits or avoid sudden stops as well as demonstrating good overall driving behavior are rewarded with cheaper insurance premiums.

Discover why insurance pricing is all in the data. 

Client: InformaTech, published by TU Automotive on 8th January 2021. Author/journalist: Graham Jarvis.

Automation Allowing Treasurers to Piece Together Balances and Cash Reports

Advances in technologies that allow for automation of processes have “completely revolutionised the forecasting process” for treasurers, according to Brett Turner, CEO of Trovata.

Having a multi-bank application programming interface (API) data platform is “paramount if you are seeking digital transformation.” He points out that many cash-centric workflows in treasury are binary and that if a treasurer doesn’t have all of their banks reporting, “it’s really hard to take action with a high degree of confidence.”

In August, Trovata and ICD launched an integrated corporate treasury solution.

It comes in the midst of a number of high profile announcements involving treasury and transaction services automation, as banks and corporates look to stem problems created by the pandemic: in August, Finastra announced it would be helping CIH Bank automate a number of its trade and supply chain finance services. 

Learn more about how automation is allowing treasurers to "piece together and cash reports."

Client: The Global Treasurer. Published on 7th September 2020.