In addition to running various entrepreneurial activities in the restaurant and digital infrastructure service businesses, Robert Bouchard joined the Econocom Board of Directors in 2009. He became Vice Chairman in 2015 and was appointed Chairman of the Group’s Audit Committee the same year, where he served for two years. In 2016 he took on an operational role and was appointed COO of Econocom in 2017. As head of all the Group’s operations, he successfully completed the ‘Mutation 2013-2017’ strategic plan.

“Having worked closely with Robert for over 20 years, I am confident that he has all the requisite qualities to take on these new responsibilities and lead the Group successfully into a new phase of growth and value creation. I would also like to stress that he shares and upholds the Group’s values and entrepreneurial spirit. Like me, he firmly believes in the value and effectiveness of our original development model,”  Jean-Louis Bouchard added.

Since 1986, the European-based Econocom Group has been listed on Euronext Brussels. The Group is a B2B service provider founded in 1974. With more than 10,700 employees in 19 countries and revenue of €3bn, the company operates in three segments: Technology Management & Financing, Products & Solutions, and Services.

The post Robert Bouchard appointed CEO of Econocom Group appeared first on International Finance.

AFEX, one of the world’s largest non-bank providers of global payment and risk management solutions, has announced a partnership with TradeRiver, the alternative finance provider for SMEs.

The partnership sees AFEX, via its API, embed international payment and foreign exchange capabilities directly into the TradeRiver trade credit platform. TradeRiver clients are now seamlessly able to execute foreign exchange at the same time as initiating their trade credit related payment, providing improved efficiency and transparency to the process.

AFEX clients are also able to benefit from TradeRiver’s cross border trade credit platform to ease cash flow pinches and take advantage of opportunities in the market. TradeRiver offers up to £5million in unsecured growth working capital to businesses provided though a quick and easy online paperless application process.

“This partnership combines our payments and FX expertise with TradeRiver’s trade finance expertise giving clients access to the best possible advice and service with transparent pricing to meet their international working capital needs,” said Stuart Holmes, General Manager EMEA, AFEX. “We are delighted to be partnering with TradeRiver, which shares our commitment to supporting UK SMEs as they look to trade internationally.”

“The strategic corporate partnership with AFEX marks a very significant step for TradeRiver in terms of both improving and expanding our product offering,” said Richard Fossett, Chief Executive Officer, TradeRiver. “In a challenging environment for British businesses this partnership can help give them an edge against their competitors by providing extremely competitive fixed-margin rates for overseas payments.”

Commenting on the API integration, AFEX’s Head of Integrated Solutions for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Ramnath Ramhit, said, “Like AFEX, TradeRiver is a technology-led financial services company. Their offering is fully online, providing a straight-through service and experience to clients. Our API complements that, enabling its client-base to benefit from AFEX’s extensive payment and foreign exchange capabilities within the TradeRiver ecosystem.”

The post AFEX partners with TradeRiver appeared first on International Finance.

March 15, 2017: BTL GROUP LTD. (TSX Venture: BTL) has announced that Jon Downing has joined its advisory board. BTL, which operates from both Canada and the UK, offers blockchain solutions to businesses.

Over the last 25 years, Jon has successfully delivered innovation, business and technology services at some of the largest and most respected global companies, including Visa, J P Morgan, HP Enterprise Services & American Express.

Over the last two years, Jon was a key member of Visa Europe’s Innovation Hub, Visa Collab, which was responsible for identifying and testing the most exciting, revolutionary ideas in payments and developing them into commercial realities. He set up and led the blockchain practice at Visa Collab and was responsible for leading multiple high-profile proof of concept initiatives with key start-up companies, including BTL, testing ideas for new products and services across the whole payments eco-system, with specific focus and thought leadership in the blockchain and crypto-currency domain.

“I am joining BTL because I passionately believe in the transformational potential of blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies,” Jon said. “BTL have correctly identified and solved for the privacy and scalability challenges through the innovative design and architecture of their Interbit solution, which I directly experienced during the Interbank Settlement pilot, along with BTL’s focus on excellence, meeting and exceeding client expectations, along with building a compelling vision for the future. I look forward to working with BTL’s leadership team and board of directors to help realise the company vision of bringing the world’s critical systems into consensus.”

“BTL has had a strong start to the year with the launch of our European energy pilot and continuing work in the interbank-settlement space,” said Guy Halford-Thompson, BTL’s Chief Executive Officer. “We believe Jon’s experience in the finance space will help us accelerate commercialisation of our Interbit platform. Jon’s domain expertise, as well as his experience growing and managing large teams, are critical skills which BTL will greatly benefit from as we continue to expand this year.”

The post BTL gets crypto-currency expert on advisory board appeared first on International Finance.

September 14, 2016: Provenir, provider of risk analytics solutions, announced that rent-to-own industry leader Rent-A-Center, Inc. has adopted Provenir’s hosted solution, Provenir Cloud, to support the processing of customer applications for lease purchase agreements in connection with its AcceptanceNow line of business.

“Provenir’s risk analytics and decisioning platform’s scalability and rich functionality provide significant value to Rent-A-Center’s growth plans and transformation,” said Mark Denman, EVP of AcceptanceNow at Rent-a-Center. “By implementing Provenir Cloud to process customer lease applications, we will increase speed, improve delivery and provide our customers better, faster access to our products and services.”

Provenir’s hybrid solution will provide Rent-A-Center with access to on-premises and cloud environments. It will sit in the heart of RAC’s processing workflow, acting as an orchestrating hub and connecting internal and external data with various rules and risk models.

“Provenir is committed to providing Rent-A-Center with a flexible, secure and scalable environment that ensures simplified maintenance for the users so that they can continue to deliver value to their customers while pursuing their growth strategy,” said Paul Thomas, Managing Director at Provenir.

The post Rent-A-Center adopts Provenir Cloud appeared first on International Finance.

Rosie Kmeid

November 27, 2014: Economies worldwide are making a global transformation, in which the information technology industry assumes increasingly greater importance. Indeed, technology is evolving at an amazingly rapid speed. The awe-inspiring advances that drive the technology industry forward have dominated several study topics, for they have taken productivity upwards.

Technologies and innovations always surprise, as they may have significant and disruptive impact on our economies, industries and livelihoods. There will be disruptions to established norms, and there will be broad societal and economic challenges. Nevertheless, we see considerable reason for optimism. Many technologies offer immense opportunities on the horizon, and provide an opening for new players to revolutionise the established order with breakthrough initiatives.

For the Islamic financial services industry, change is the key driving force in a complex global financial ecosystem. This change is mainly based on continuing advances in technology. Technology and Islamic finance is a new relationship that has received limited attention until recently, as only a few studies have attempted to delve into the subject, and thus calls for various explorations from several angles.

Technology as an enabler of operational excellence

Today’s climate of political and economic uncertainty and stiff competition gave rise to the need for Islamic financial institutions to quickly address various challenges and opportunities, driven primarily by market forces such as customer choices, compliance and regulatory requirements, the need to reduce operational costs and increase market share.

The adoption of new technologies is becoming a priority for Islamic financial institutions in keeping with the spirit of a progressive institution, as they strive to make banking as convenient, as technology-enabled and as cost-effective as possible.

For the past several years, Islamic financial institutions’ technology spending generally remained flat. During and right after the financial crisis, belt-tightening measures were enforced across the global financial services segment. In 2011, however, they finally enjoyed some breathing room thanks to some revived spending power.

Computerworld’s Forecast 2014 Survey of IT executives shows that budgets are indeed continuing to make a nice recovery since then. IT is expected to again kick up spending on security tools, alternative banking channels, social media, mobile applications, analytic systems and cloud computing.

But with regulatory scrutiny more intense than ever, Islamic financial institutions’ technology investments will likely focus more on driving efficiencies while complying with further stringent regulatory requirements.

Unleashing the potential of technology in Islamic finance

Islamic finance has thus far not benefited fully from modern technologies. One of the reasons lies in the lack of awareness of technological advancement and considering the anticipated advantages. Moreover, supervisory authorities have failed to adopt a unified approach as to technological innovations. Not all of them believe that Islamic finance is a discipline in its own right that requires separate technologies, provided by dedicated system vendors. In a long race for competiveness and innovation, without a deep appreciation of the technological capabilities of Islamic finance, the industry will surely fall behind its conventional counterpart.

The use of technology in Islamic finance simply requires foresight and determination. As we observe the industry growing by leaps and bounds, it is important to address legal and regulatory compliance requisites and keep abreast of changing requirements and industry best practices. With the adoption of specialised technologies, the potential to sharply expand the industry globally is inevitable.

The usage of information technology is not solely seen as the only viable way towards improving the Islamic financial institutions’ internal processes and enhancing its operational efficiencies, but also to ensure the compatibility of its activities with sharia principles. An important principle behind Islamic finance is the desire to maintain the moral purity of all financial dealings. The rationale behind this is rather one of prudence and transparency as predicated in Ahkam al-Iqtisad wa al-Muamalah of Fiqh al-Muamalat.

The impact of faith-based technology in an age of globalisation

The complex and unconventional nature of Islamic finance requires dedicated software systems to cater to the different interpretations of sharia in various jurisdictions, and ensure full compliance with the accounting standards for Islamic financial institutions as set by AAOIFI, and the risk management and capital adequacy standards as prescribed by IFSB. As these prudential standards and guidance notes are still evolving, and with the supervisory authorities framing and reviewing them regularly, a comprehensive approach that takes into account international and local regulations and the technological tools from a sharia perspective is required.

The under-penetrated Islamic financial services sector necessitates concerted, evidence-based efforts by all constituents to harness current momentum and promote deep understanding and the value proposition of sharia-compliant banking systems, better tailored to meet the needs of modern Islamic financial institutions.

While the industry has become sophisticated enough to appeal to a wide customer base, the pressure for a larger portfolio of new and innovative sharia-compliant products and quick yet efficient banking services brought a paradigm shift in Islamic financial institutions’ performance in a bid to catch up with rapidly growing demand. And as such, these institutions should be able to embrace new trends and exploit the opportunities of modern faith-based technology, given that change in a globalised world is only expected to hasten in the future.

Conclusion

The Western financial system has kept Islamic finance dormant for centuries. However, there has been a marked revival of interest lately. Despite an unfavourable environment and a financial recession, which made the traditional banking system significantly suffer and contract, the Islamic finance industry is growing at a staggering rate of 15% to 20% annually, undeterred by the uncertain climate elsewhere in the world’s financial markets.

Recognising the increasing market demand for Islamic financial services, aspiring global players are fostering a more systematic approach to shaping the dynamic scene. As Islamic financial institutions continue to expand and grow in sophistication, sharia-compliant technology is increasingly becoming a key enabler to gaining a foothold in this emerging sector.

For those not yet aware, the future of Islamic finance is now. In the modern age, new technologies proliferate rapidly. At Moody’s, assessing the technological sophistication of a financial institution is becoming an increasingly important element in the institution’s rating methodology. Leveraging technology for goal-driven performance optimisation is a must-have skill set to enabling an organisation to scale. In their quest to outperform conventional banks, Islamic financial institutions ought to take on an active role in making this happen.

Mrs. Rosie Kmeid

Rosie Kmeid is vice-president for Global Corporate Communications & Marketing at Path Solutions

The post Islamic finance must embrace technology faster appeared first on International Finance.