Fintech, Finance, Technology, Banking Highlights – 27 February 2018

Nuance adds to voice authentication suite

Nuance Communications, announced the next generation of Security Suite, a state-of-the-art biometric security solution for fraud prevention and authentication, and a key advancement to the Nuance Omni-Channel Customer Engagement Platform.

Leveraging third generation deep neural networks and advanced AI algorithms, Nuance is pioneering significant fraud fighting technologies to detect anomalies in an interaction. With these new innovations, Nuance is building on its market-leading solution, that already processes more than five billion successful voice authentications yearly for customers across the globe, to offer the most comprehensive biometrics-based approach available today for preventing fraud on voice and digital channels.

Fraud is a significant issue globally, and is growing fast in the contact center. In the US alone, more than 50% of the population has reported being a victim of some kind of fraud or data breach (1). This is only poised to grow with the increasing number of channels on which consumers engage and the rise of the digital wallet. Fraudsters do not approach account access in a siloed manner; instead, they take advantage of the growing channels, devices, and access points. In order to truly combat fraud, organizations need to have a cross-channel security approach that stops fraudsters wherever and however they attack.

The next generation of Security Suite offers a comprehensive, layered approach, powered by advanced AI, to thwart omni-channel fraud through voice, face or behavioral biometrics. Through the introduction of ConversationPrint – the first technology of its kind to hit the market – combined with the development of Intelligent Detectors, the new solution empowers organizations to analyze every facet of each customer interaction. From behavioral and voice biometrics, to device identification and geo location, Security Suite detects the difference between a true user and an imposter at an unprecedented level across voice and digital channels.


Vermeg completes acquisition of Lombard Risk

Vermeg, a European banking and insurance software solutions firm, has acquired Lombard Risk, the global provider of integrated regulatory reporting and collateral management solutions. This move is a key milestone in Vermeg’s ambitious strategy to create a leading force in financial services solutions, via a powerful combination of organic and external growth.

Lombard Risk will rapidly expand Vermeg Group’s geographical footprint and product lines into fast growing areas including collateral management and regulatory risk solutions.

Vermeg has offices in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, the Netherlands and Tunisia, and annual revenues of €54 million. This acquisition increases Vermeg’s key business lines and adds collateral management operations, regulatory reporting and compliance products for banks and buy-side firms to its 150-strong customer base of insurers, institutional investors, asset managers, depositories and central banks.

Lombard Risk’s presence in the United Kingdom, North America and Asia-Pacific provides Vermeg with a promising platform in these areas and the ability to further expand its existing operations.

DeVere adds support for Ripple and Dash

Despite almost all major cryptocurrencies ending last week in the red after another highly volatile few days, one of the world’s largest independent financial services organisations has added two new tokens to its crypto trading app.

Users of deVere Crypto, the deVere Group’s trailblazing app launched only three weeks ago, can now also store, transfer and exchange Ripple (XRP) and Dash (DASH), alongside the existing cryptocurrencies on the app: Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC).

By market cap, Bitcoin is the world’s largest, followed by Ethereum (second) and Ripple (third). Litecoin is fifth and Dash is tenth.

deVere Group founder and CEO, Nigel Green, comments: “We wanted to expand our offering on deVere Crypto for two key reasons. First, all cryptocurrencies have different characteristics, strengths and values and, therefore, they’re useful in different ways for people and organisations.

“Those cryptocurrencies that have made it onto the deVere Crypto app have been painstakingly analysed and evaluated by the deVere Crypto Research Department, run by 10 of the world’s leading blockchain and crypto experts. Other companies, I believe, overlook this essential process and that we are the only ones to be doing this level and scope of research.

“And second, demand for and interest in cryptocurrencies is set to grow exponentially this year and beyond – and we want to meet that demand for our clients.”