News Nuggets | 14 September: BMLL Gains New Investment; CQG's Trading Platform

BUX Offers Market-Leading 2.75% Interest Compensation

The Amsterdam-based neo-broker, BUX is offering unprecedented interest compensation of 2.75% on un-invested cash balances. This significant increase, effective from October 1, 2023, follows the hiking of interest rates by the European Central Bank, the company said.

BUX's move distinguishes it as the Dutch broker with the highest interest compensation in Europe. According to the company's statement, all of its clients, regardless of their location, can benefit from this interest rate on cash balances up to €25,000. Besides that, the company is offering protection of up to €100,000 on cash accounts under the Deposit Guarantee Scheme (DGS).

FCA Warns against Bregco FX Clone

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued a warning regarding Bregco FX, which is a clone of an FCA-authorized firm that was previously authorized in the European Economic Area.

The regulator stated that fraudsters have been using the name and details of the authorized firm to deceive people into believing that Bregco FX Clone is a legitimate financial firm. It is a fraudulent scheme commonly referred to as a ",clone firm."

OpenAI Expands with New Dublin Office

OpenAI announced the opening of its third office in Dublin, Ireland, today (Thursday). While currently modest in size, with nine job openings spanning various teams, the artificial intelligence (AI) provider has plans for further growth in the near future.

Notably, OpenAI's decision to choose Dublin aligns with its strategy to tap into a talent pool well-versed in the culture of tech giants like Meta and Google. The firm said that Ireland's regulatory environment and business development opportunities make it an attractive choice.

Alphabet Initiates Layoffs in Global Recruitment Team

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has announced layoffs within its global recruiting team as part of its ongoing reduction in hiring efforts. The majority of the recruitment team will be retained to fill critical roles, and Alphabet is actively assisting the affected workers in finding new positions within the company or elsewhere.

In January, Alphabet had already reduced its workforce 6%, eliminating approximately 12,000 jobs. The decision to lay off employees happened amid a broader increase in layoffs in the United States.

Capitalxtend Launches MetaTrader 5, Boosts Leverage to 1:5000

Capitalxtend, a regulated brokerage firm, has unveiled MetaTrader 5 (MT5) on its trading platform offerings. This strategic move is aimed at enabling clients to enhance their trading activities across various markets while maximizing their potential earnings.

"MetaQuotes consistently delivers new MetaTrader 5 features," said Soheila Rashidi. "This fact became decisive when switching to the new platform. We are pleased to introduce a cutting-edge product with a large number of useful tools which fully meet traders' needs."

ClearBank Publishes H1 2023 Results

ClearBank Ltd., a provider of embedded banking services, has released its H1 2023 results, revealing year-over-year (YoY) growth of 144% in revenue, from £20.2 million in H1 2022 to £49.3 million this year. The bank also recorded a profit of £6 million and a significant increase of 80% YoY in customer deposits, totaling £5.4 billion across nearly one million accounts.

Additionally, ClearBank reported a profit before tax of £5.9 million in H1 2023 and has been profitable since November 2022. The fintech firm is on track for annual profitability and is planning international expansion, including pursuing a European banking license.

European Banks Unveil Anti-Fraud Tool

EBA Clearing, a pan-European payment infrastructure, has recruited nine banks from six countries to test its new Fraud Pattern and Anomaly Detection (FPAD) functionality. FPAD aims to equip payment service providers with real-time fraud prevention and detection tools, like IBAN and name checks.

The tool will integrate insights on patterns and anomalies from a centralized infrastructure level, enhancing the individual risk assessments of account-to-account and instant payment systems. Data model training took place over the summer to identify fraud patterns and qualify anomalies.

N26 Announces Its New General Manager

An online bank, N26 has appointed Claudio Bedino as the General Manager for Italy and Southeast Europe. Bedino, who is replacing Andrea Isola, will focus on expanding the bank's presence and product offerings in these critical markets.

Bedino brings extensive experience from the fintech sector, including co-founding Oval Money and founding Starteed, two prominent startups in Italy focused on financial awareness and crowdfunding, respectively.

“I am very happy to be joining N26, a company I have always admired for its ability to mark a change in the digital banking sector,” Bedino commented.

Nasdaq Highlights Technology Debt in Financial Markets

According to a global survey by Nasdaq, 78% of Financial Market Infrastructure (FMI) investment budgets are being used to maintain and upgrade legacy technology. With more than a third of firms planning significant overhauls in the next five years, the need for technology updates is colliding with a wave of regulation.

The report indicates that these commitments to legacy technology and regulatory changes leave little room for growth-oriented investments. Compared to market participants, FMIs lag behind in adopting Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and AI initiatives.

ASIC Seeks Feedback on Insolvent Trading Guidelines

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has released a consultation paper seeking comments on updates to its guidance on insolvent trading. The proposed updates include information on when a holding company may be liable for debts incurred by a subsidiary that continued to trade while insolvent.

The paper also aims to clarify the operation of safe harbor provisions and what factors ASIC will consider in providing safe harbor protection to directors. Feedback on the consultation paper is welcomed until 26 October 2023.

Paysend and Visa Collaborate for Real-Time Global Money Transfers

Paysend, a UK-based fintech firm, has extended its collaboration with Visa to enable customers worldwide to perform real-time money transfers to eligible Visa cards across 170 countries. This builds upon their initial partnership established in February 2022, which allowed Paysend's US and UK users to send money to eligible Visa cards domestically and internationally.

By tying together Visa Direct, Paysend has enhanced the speed and convenience of global money transfers, aiming to address the banking needs of underserved regions by utilizing card networks. Joint marketing initiatives will further promote seamless payments, with a focus on key corridors such as the USA-Latin America route, reflecting significant investment in Paysend's card technology.

"Our mission at Paysend is simple – to deliver the world's simplest money transfer service. By teaming up with Visa, we are well positioned to provide a safe, economical, and hassle-free money transfer experience for millions of individuals currently facing challenges in accessing traditional banking services," Abdul Abdulkerimov, the Chairman and Co-Founder of Paysend, commented.

Societe Generale Expands Products on Spectrum Markets

Spectrum Markets, the IG-owned pan-European exchange for securitized derivatives, announced that Societe Generale is expanding the geographical availability of some of its products to Italy. These products include daily constant leverage products and vanilla warrant products.

“We’re very pleased to see Societe Generale expanding the scope of its relationship with Spectrum so soon after listing its first products with us,” Nicky Maan, the CEO at Spectrum Markets, said.

“The firm is well known for its pioneering approach within the industry, and we look forward to continuing to work together on delivering our shared goal of providing European retail investors an innovative, accessible, safe, and transparent financial market experience.”

BMLL Secures New Investments

BMLL, a provider of Level 3 data and analytics for the equities and futures markets, has secured fresh investments from Snowflake Ventures. The two also partnered to deliver granular data and analytics to market participants globally.

Last October, BMLL closed its Series B funding round, securing $26 million from Nasdaq Ventures, FactSet and IQ Capital.

“We are very excited to have secured strategic investment from Snowflake Ventures,” Paul Humphrey, the CEO of BMLL, commented. “They are backing, and are aligned with, our mission to democratize access to high quality, large-scale historical data because BMLL’s data and analytics is one of the best use-cases for large-scale, financial market data in the cloud.”

Playtech Enhances ID Verification

Playtech, a London-listed technology provider to the online gambling industry, has scaled up the player onboarding process in its latest partnership with the digital ID verification company, IDVerse.

“This partnership enables Playtech operators to utilize a cutting-edge ID verification (IDV) solution that eliminates the need for manual authentication of ID documents worldwide,” Fiona Davies, the Head of Gaming at IDVerse, commented. “Our document ID coverage is the most robust on the market today due to the proprietary way in which our neural networks review identity documents.”

PT RHB Taps Horizon Platform

Horizon Software, a provider of electronic trading solutions and algorithmic technology, has partnered with Indonesia’s PT RHB Sekuritas. Through this partnership, Horizon’s Platform for Warrants Market Making is now connected to the Indonesia Stock Exchange, allowing investors to trade with RHB Sekuritas.

“As part of our efforts to scale the structured warrant business in Indonesia, Horizon’s Platform for Warrants Market Making provides our investors live warrant pricing that instantly reflects the underlying share price movement and automates the pricing and quotation of structured warrants listed by RHB Sekuritas,” Kenneth Zhao, the Head of Equity Derivatives at RHB Sekuritas, said.

“Our clients can now take advantage of the warrants movement even at a quick dip or a brief rebound and conveniently trade RHB Sekuritas-listed warrants in their daily market-making activities.”

CQG Adds New Features to Trading Platforms

CQG, a provider of trading platforms to brokers, has released a new version of its CQG One and CQG Desktop, adding some new features, along with a few bug fixes. It has appended bid/ask profile histograms to DOMTrader/HOT, as well as exchange and expiration date columns to the Fills widget.

Additionally, it has improved the confirmation when creating an alert. CGG further added PBO notification options with symbol color for expiration warnings, support for importing .xlsx files, and comments to the Hedge Account Balances Details widget.