Fintech, Finance, Technology, Banking Highlights – 20 February 2018
Linedata Launches Enhanced Global Hedge Platform
Linedata, the global solutions and outsourcing services provider to the investment management and credit finance industries, has launched a new version of its Linedata Global Hedge platform.
It is designed to meet asset managers’ evolving challenges by improving efficiency, product delivery flexibility, data management and automation across the portfolio management lifecycle.
The latest version of Linedata Global Hedge delivers an enhanced user experience for the front-office, including order generation, pre-trade compliance and middle-office operations. Further front-office improvements are multiple enhancements for trading, streamlined workflows, what-if analysis and pre-trade compliance, as well as mobile processing capabilities. Now supporting cryptocurrencies, Linedata Global Hedge enables trading, booking and tracking of Bitcoin (XBT) and related derivatives. Linedata Global Hedge provides direct access to the Linedata Lynx network, allowing FIX trading connectivity with a global list of brokers and partners.
To address the evolving requirements of clients across the global alternative and institutional community, Linedata Global Hedge has introduced Lua Programming scripting to further extend system flexibility for real-time analysis and decision making. Managers use the platform to simplify the process of taking on additional counterparties and launching new products, including additional funds and managed accounts, allowing them to easily work with multiple custodians, prime brokers and swap counterparties, and achieve greater scale in their businesses.
As demand for digital currency trading surges, cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp selects Onfido to scale customer onboarding
As demand for cryptocurrency trading continues to surge, Bitstamp has selected Onfido to help it scale and onboard new customers.
Onfido’s full-stack identity verification platform is now live, helping Bitstamp clear its backlog of customer signup requests following the recent spike in digital currency trading interest.
Founded in 2011 in the UK, Bitstamp, now based in Luxembourg, is one of the largest and longest established bitcoin exchanges globally, with more than 3 million customers registered on its platform.
With demand for digital currency exchanges reaching unprecedented levels, some exchanges have struggled to keep up with demand – either shutting down completely, or seeing substantial backlogs of customer signups and trading requests. During the period from January to November, overall trading volumes at Bitstamp increased by an incredible 1,384%. In December 2017, Bitstamp saw 100,000 customer signups on one day alone.
“Onfido’s powerful machine-learning technology has allowed us to automate our new customer identity verification process, and still maintain our high standards when it comes to KYC,” said Bitstamp CEO, Nejc Kodric. “We’re already seeing positive results when it comes to speeding up our verification process.”
Lydia raises $16.1 million to become the PayPal of mobile payments
Lydia, the French mobile payments leader, has raised 13 million euros, taking the total amount raised by the startup to over 23 million euros.
Since its launch in 2013, Lydia has become an essential app for 18-35 year olds. The company crossed the milestone of one million users at the end of 2017, and 2,000 Lydia accounts are now created daily. Internationally acclaimed for its innovation and excellent user experience and buoyed by the increasing trend towards mobile payments, Lydia’s objective is to become an undisputed part of Europeans’ daily lives.
The startup is one of the pioneers of the cashless revolution which is sweeping across most of the planet – from China to Sweden. CNP Assurances led this funding round of 13 million euros. They join the company’s existing investors – including XAnge, New Alpha AM, Oddo BHF and Groupe Duval – who have each made follow-on investments. This round will enable the fintech startup to develop new services, and to accelerate its exponential growth in France, the UK, Ireland, Portugal and Spain, as well as in the rest of the European Union.
“Now, more than ever before, Lydia is one of the major players in the cashless revolution gaining pace across Europe. We’d like to thank our existing investors for their ongoing trust, and we are thrilled to welcome CNP Assurances onboard. These enriched means will allow us to go even faster and further towards providing the 500 million citizens of Europe with the best-adapted interface for their money”, commented Cyril Chiche, President and Co-founder of Lydia.
