Media-Insert Communications

Egypt attempts to plug FX hole

Coronavirus exposes cracks in Egypt’s macroeconomic stabilisation. 

The state of Egypt’s security and macroeconomic stabilisation has been further weakened by the global coronavirus pandemic, according to think tank the Arab Reform Initiative (ARI).

The organisation’s August 2020 research paper reported that while the country remains stable on the surface, it continues to have deep structural problems with militarisation of the economy, claims of corruption and a shortfall in remittances from Egyptians working in oil-rich Gulf countries...

Discover more about how Egypt is plugging its FX hole.

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

Addressing the AML Risks of Cryptocurrencies

With the recent explosion in cryptocurrencies, from the early beginnings of Bitcoin back in 2009 through to J.P. Morgan testing their own digital coins for institutional clients in 2019, there still remains serious unanswered questions about the money laundering risks they bring to banks, consumers and regulators.

Ciphertrace’s ‘Q2 2019 Cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering Report’ make some stark revelations. It claims that theft, scams and other forms of misappropriation of funds “from cryptocurrency users and exchanges netted criminals and fraudsters approximately $4.26 billion in aggregate.” With the emergent growth of any financial services industry there often comes the risk of both data security breaches and more serious crime. Despite their robust security claims, cryptocurrencies and blockchain aren’t immune as there will also be miscreants who will want to abuse the system. 

Address the anti-money laundering risks of crypto-currencies.

Published by Arachnys on 22nd October 2020. Author: Graham Jarvis. 

Sibos 2019 Day 2 - Real-Time Payments: The Need for Speed

Day two of Sibos 2019, 24^th September 2019, very much echoed many of the thoughts expressed during the first day of the conference. The recurring themes talked about artificial intelligence, machine learning, open banking, regulatory compliance and the need to improve the speed of instant, real-time payments. Achieving this goal is no easy feat. There are opposing forces at play, which are affecting the ability of banks to align compliance needs with real-time payments.

The conference’s synopsis for the morning session about this challenge accepted that the payments landscape is rapidly changing. Find out how it's being transformed. 

Published by SmartPayments.com. Author: Graham Jarvis. Client: Bottomline Technologies. 

Sibos 2019 Day 1: Helping Banks Thrive In The New Real Time Open Environment

Sibos Day One was teeming with people bustling from stand to stand, and was filled with informative presentations from some of the greatest influencers and companies in the payments and banking space, sharing their predictions, concerns and insights.

Renowned physicist Professor Brian Cox opened the conference at Excel in London with a reminder about trust as one of the central themes of this year’s conference agenda. His presentation focused on what science can teach us about wider society. As part of his presentation he made mention of a couple of physicists who worked on the Manhattan Project during WWII, one of which was Julius Robert Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer claimed that nature forces us to look at the world in a particular way; it’s a harsh master says Cox to the extent that “there is no dodging what nature tells you.”

Learn more from Prof. Cox, and about how it's possible to help banks to thrive in the new real-time open environment. 

Published by Smart Payments on 24th September 2019. Client: Bottomline Technologies. Author: Graham Jarvis. 

Innovating Markets: The Benefits of a Decentralised Marketplace and Trading Platform

The financial services industry has often been criticised for being slow to innovate. However, new non-banking and fintech entrants, such as technology start-ups have, over the last few years, begun to shake up the market.

Furthermore, the rise of cryptocurrencies and blockchain has inspired a vision amongst many free market protagonists of being able to conduct business, without the need for central banks and regulators. To them, this marketplace decentralisation is a good thing. For example, it can allow new and non-traditional entrants, including ordinary individuals, to become venture capitalists. However, cryptocurrencies and blockchain also come with their own critics.

Discover why you should exploit the benefits of a decentralised marketplace and trading, read the complete article.

Published by Global Banking and Finance Review on 24th October 2018. Author: Graham Jarvis. TDC Client: Venture Exchange.  

Live Chat in Banking: Recording Conversations for Compliance

The banking and financial service sector’s regulatory burden is widely said to be constantly increasing, and it certainly isn’t a process that is going to end any time soon.

In May 2018 the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force, and in December 2018 came the approval by the industry’s regulators of Basel IV – the latter focusing on standardised risk weights and more detailed disclosures of capital reserves and other key financial statistics.

Also, earlier this year, national audit, tax and advisory firm Crowe Clark Whitehill in collaboration with the University of Portsmouth’s Centre for Counter Fraud Studies (CCFS) carried out research that found that fraud epidemic costs the UK £110 billion – and £3.2 trillion globally. According to Jim Gee, head of forensic and counter fraud at Crowe Clark Whitehill, “the threat of fraud is becoming increasingly like a clinical virus – it is ever-present and ever-evolving”.

Find out more about recording live chat conversations for compliance, read the complete article.

Published by FinTech Futures on 1st October 2018. Author: Graham Jarvis. Client: Click4Assistance.

Banks and Financial Services: Establishing New Partnerships for Venture Capital

Financier Worldwide magazine touts initial coin offerings (ICOs) as the Wild West of financing, questioning whether ICOs represent the end of venture capital fundraising; as well as the Financial Times headlining, ‘Venture capital investors urged to wake up to ICOs’, you’d probably be right to think that there is some sort of industry shake-up happening.

This industrial earthquake, despite most ICOs being start-up focused, could create the need for traditional venture capitalists, venture capital organisations (and perhaps even the banks often with venture capital arms) to reevaluate opportunities to ensure they can gain or even maintain a share of the venture capital market. To achieve this, will they need to develop strategic partnerships with a wide range of cryptocurrency finance and blockchain-based firms, including ICOs? Whenever there is disruption in the market, all possibilities must be considered – especially in the fintech industry, where technology and innovation are becoming increasingly crucial.

Discover how to establish new partnerships for venture capital, read the complete article. 

Publish on 15th August 2018 by the FinTech Times. Author: Graham Jarvis. 

Why Blockchain Won’t Fix Payments

There is a misconception about blockchain in the industry surrounding the belief that it is a solution to making faster and securer payments. There are some issues around the blockchain that explain why, in its present form, it isn’t an ideal replacement.

Read the complete article in Banking Technology's Fintech Futures. 

Written by Graham A. Jarvis, and published on 7th November 2017. 

Dodd-Frank Reform: Why Would It Force the UK to Relax Regulation?

US President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order on 3^rd February 2017 to review the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial regulations, which were brought in to prevent another 2008 financial crisis.  Simon French, Panmure Gordon’s chief economist, explains that “The Executive Order is more a set of principles to guide deregulation efforts. However recent testimony from senior Trump officials have suggested that legislation will look to revoke the ring-fencing of retail assets (deposits), which can no longer be used as collateral for investment activities – the so called Volcker Rule.”

President Donald Trump's 7 principles for reform are revealed. Find out more, read the complete article. #YearInReview

Published by The Kurtosys Blog on 19th April 2017. Author: Graham Jarvis. 

Maximising potential: The Industrial Internet

Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) often use extremely large files, which make remote working and collaboration difficult to achieve. Most businesses are able to work remotely with laptops, smartphones and tablet PCs, but the processing power required to create, store and share CAD files over a wide area network is often prohibitive. Yet with the power of the internet they can work remotely and collaboratively.

The key challenge, because the files they send to their colleagues and CAD partners across the globe are so large, is about how their IT teams mitigate the effects of latency in Wide Area Networks (WAN) to enable them to work uninterrupted by slow network connections. Strained WAN resources aren’t the only issue that concerns them. They need to deploy remote access control technology to protect their data as it flows across the internet, and from cloud to cloud, to ensure that only authorised individuals can work on any given CAD or CAE projects...

This article takes a look at how data acceleration can enable companies to maximise the potential of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).  Find out how to achieve this by reading the complete article here: https://digitalisationworld.com/article/51020/. #YearInReview

Published by Digitalisation World on 11th April 2017. Author: Graham Jarvis.