Fintech, Finance, Technology, Banking Highlights – 18 October 2018
Federal Reserve Payments Study finds U.S. payments fraud a small but growing fraction of overall payments
The value of fraudulent noncash payments in the United States rose significantly between 2012 and 2015–outpacing growth in noncash payments overall, according to a new report based on Federal Reserve Payments Study data.
The study’s survey of depository institutions found that the value of noncash payments fraud rose 37 percent from $6.1 billion in 2012 to $8.3 billion in 2015. Over the same period, the total value of noncash payments rose 12 percent from $161.2 trillion to $180.3 trillion.
The report provides estimates of payments fraud totals and rates for payments processed over general-purpose credit and debit card networks, including non-prepaid and prepaid debit card networks, the automated clearinghouse (ACH) transfer system, and the check clearing system. These payment systems form the core of the noncash payment and settlement systems used to clear and settle everyday payments made by consumers and businesses in the United States.
The fraud data were collected as part of Federal Reserve surveys of depository institutions in 2012 and 2015 and payment card networks in 2015 and 2016. The types of fraudulent payments covered in the study are those made by an unauthorized third party.
Jin Investment Management Adopts TORA Rebalancing to Reduce Risk and Improve Workflow Efficiency
Tora, provider of the industry’s most-advanced cloud-based order and execution management system, announced the launch of Tora Rebalancing.
This new solution is natively integrated within the TORA platform and helps asset managers reduce risk and improve workflow efficiencies around the portfolio rebalance process.
TORA Rebalancing helps portfolio managers rebalance the allocation/weightings of a portfolio’s assets in order to maintain its risk-return characteristics, which can get out of alignment over time as the value of various assets change. In addition to facilitating rebalances, the solution also helps firms manage subscriptions and redemptions, construct portfolios, synchronize separately managed account (SMA) and primary fund portfolios, and share and repurpose portfolio models.
Independent of the frequency that rebalancing needs to be performed, the process should be as efficient as possible and factor in various compliance, risk and allocation guidelines. As part of the TORA platform, TORA Rebalancing is integrated with the platform’s compliance, risk and trading capabilities to further reduce risk and streamline the rebalancing process.
The product has recently been added by Jin Investment Management, a Singapore-based hedge fund that has used TORA’s OEMS for several years, to help the firm reduce risk and improve their portfolio rebalance workflow.
Accenture Acquires TargetST8 Consulting, Enhancing Its Consulting and Advisory Capabilities in Commercial and Corporate Lending
Accenture has acquired TargetST8 Consulting, a privately held financial services consulting firm specializing in corporate and commercial lending, with offices in New York. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in 2013, TargetST8 focuses exclusively on the financial markets. Serving leading banks and investment firms in the U.S. and Europe, the company helps its clients leverage proprietary digital lending solutions, including deploying artificial intelligence and robotic process automation.
The addition of TargetST8 — with its deep commercial and corporate lending expertise and innovative solutions — will complement and enhance Accenture’s commercial and corporate lending capabilities and bolster its Credit Consulting practice.
“TargetST8 consultants are known for their deep expertise, innovative digital solutions, and outstanding project delivery — particularly in their implementation of Finastra’s Loan IQ solution,” said Alan McIntyre, who leads Accenture’s Banking practice globally. “The addition of TargetST8 will enhance our ability to help our commercial and corporate lending clients improve their processes and transform their businesses.”
Crux Informatics Closes $20 Million Series B Financing Round
Crux Informatics, a data engineering and information supply chain operator, announced it has closed $20 million in a Series B funding round.
The financing round includes recent investor Two Sigma, as well as follow-on investments from Goldman Sachs’ Principal Strategic Investment Group and Citi, among others from the Series A round, to enable and accelerate growth.
The ever-increasing demand for more data to drive investment decision making has led to a rapid proliferation of new data sources and greater need for financial firms to find and harness an increasingly fragmented array of data. Cleaning, managing and preparing this data for analysis requires firms to spend a significant amount of time and internal resources, when they would rather focus their efforts on gathering investment insights and extracting value from the data for their clients.
Crux’s Informatics platform provides an industry-wide solution by operating and maintaining firms’ data supply chains, so firms get past the first mile challenge of ingesting data and speed ahead to generating returns. With this new funding, Crux will continue to scale and enhance their platform, so clients can have access to best-in-class technologies and services.
“We have built a solution for what has become a significant pain point for financial services firms – ingesting and managing the tremendous amount of data that is now available to them,” said Crux Informatics CEO, Philip Brittan. “We are transforming the data industry making it possible for our clients to reap the benefits from improved data flow, which translates into more actionable insights and alpha. This funding will help us continue to drive innovation, which will scale our business and the data set solutions we offer to our clients.”
