AM BEST REVISES OUTLOOK FOR INDONESIA’S TUGU TO NEGATIVE

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 23 (Bernama) -- AM Best has revised the outlook of PT Asuransi Tugu Pratama Indonesia Tbk (Tugu) to negative from stable while affirming its financial strength rating of A- (excellent) and the long-term issuer credit rating of “a-” (excellent).

The rating agency said the credit ratings reflected the Indonesian insurer’s balance sheet strength, which it assessed as very strong, as well as its strong operating performance, neutral business profile, and appropriate enterprise risk management.

“The ratings also factor in a neutral impact from the company’s ultimate majority parent, PT Pertamina (Persero), a state-owned energy company in Indonesia,” AM Best said in a statement.

It said the revision of the outlook to negative from stable reflected the trend of deterioration in Tugu’s underwriting performance over recent periods.

“We expect the overall operating performance to remain constrained over the near to medium term,” it said

The rating agency said Tugu’s balance sheet strength is underpinned by its risk-adjusted capitalisation, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio, which remains at the strongest level.

“Capital adequacy is supported by its low net underwriting leverage and ongoing internal capital generation while its investment portfolio as assessed by AM Best to be of moderate risk and generally diversified,” it said.

AM Best said Tugu’s operating performance was also regarded as strong, driven by profitable business from its parent company, Pertamina, which continues to be the key contributor.

“However, underwriting performance has deteriorated in the two most recent financial years, accompanied by an increasing trend of operating expense ratio, and underwriting losses at its reinsurance subsidiary, PT Tugu Reasuransi Indonesia (Tugu Re).

“Meanwhile, pre-tax profits increased 15 per cent in the first nine months of 2022 compared with the same period in 2021 supported by higher investment income,” it said.

Tugu is a large insurance group in Indonesia, ranked number five by market share in 2021 in the domestic general insurance market, and additionally writes reinsurance through Tugu Re.

-- BERNAMA

KYRIBA UNVEILS RECEIVABLES FINANCE SOLUTION, ENHANCES CONTROL OVER FINANCIAL RISK

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 14 (Bernama) -- Global leader in cloud-based financial and information technology solutions Kyriba has launched Kyriba Receivables Finance, a solution that provides finance teams with greater control over factoring or securitisation programmes and which enables selective invoice financing.

The multi-funder solution integrates all vendor programmes into a single platform, providing a real-time overview of credit facilities, utilisation, limits, and programme performance.

“The speed with which companies can convert their receivables is essential for their survival, the faster the conversion, the less working capital required to support the business,” said its vice president for strategic marketing Bob Stark in the statement.

Meanwhile, head of working capital at Kyriba, Edi Poloniato said Kyriba Receivables Finance enables CFOs to release funds tied up in unpaid accounts receivables, quickly convert them into cash and optimise decision-making. 

“This solution enhances the control of financial departments over financial risk, automates the end-to-end process and reduces operational costs, while offering a single funder agnostic platform,” he said.

The Kyriba Receivables Finance key features include fast and efficient implementation; advance payment processing; payment and reconciliation; dashboards, reports, and tips; and seamless integration.

The module is available for corporates, large and medium-sized companies, and financial institutions in white-label solution.

With offices globally, Kyriba enables thousands of businesses to maximise growth opportunities, protect against losses from fraud and financial risk, and reduce costs through advanced automation.

-- BERNAMA

TransferJet Consortium member carries out field trial of content distribution service in India

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 8 (Bernama) -- A field trial of high-speed content distribution service was carried out at several subway stations around New Delhi, India, in November 2022 by HRCP Research and Development Partnership (HRCP R&D).

HRCP R&D is a member of the Tokyo-based TransferJet Consortium (the TJC). 

According to a statement, the service enables users to download movies and games at an extremely high speed by just touching the devices used.

Given a TransferJet X-installed dongle, attached to an Android smartphone, participants can select their favourite content types on an app developed by HRCP R&D.

“By touching a Touch Point (transfer device) at a station, the selected content, for example, a two-hour-long HD movie, is transferred in two seconds. The content is protected by Digital Rights Management,” it said.

TransferJet Consortium was established in 2008 to develop the technology, products and services of TransferJet wireless technology. It was transformed into an incorporated association in 2011.

The consortium focuses on development of the specifications, compliance testing processes and tools, and promotional marketing activities.

-- BERNAMA

COSMOS HOTEL MANAGEMENT OPENS 5 NEW UNIQUE MIMARU APARTMENT HOTELS IN TOKYO AND OSAKA TO DISCOVER JAPAN

TOKYO, Dec. 9, 2022 /Kyodo JBN-Asianet/ --
 

With the rapid return of international travelers to Japan, Cosmos Hotel Management Co., Ltd. is pleased to announce five Apartment Hotel MIMARU openings in Tokyo and Osaka. MIMARU offers spacious rooms furnished with stocked kitchens, enabling guests to stay together and discover Japan. With these latest openings, MIMARU now has 25 hotels in the popular urban areas of Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto as of 2022.   MIMARU Website: https://mimaruhotels.com/en/   Photo1: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M107482/202212020735/_prw_PI2fl_Gt00WFoL.png     In Tokyo, the new locations are: - Asakusa, Japan's iconic destination; - Nihombashi, where the atmosphere from the feudal Edo period is still alive; - Ikebukuro, the emerging capital of Cool Japan with manga, anime, arts, and games in abundance.   In Osaka, buzzing with the anticipation of Expo 2025, exciting Shinsaibashi with excellent access from airports now has two new MIMARU hotels.   - MIMARU SUITES Tokyo Nihombashi (Opened September 29th, 2022) All rooms are spacious, with two separate bedrooms and a kitchen stocked with popular Japanese tableware. Please eat like a local in a guestroom.   - MIMARU Tokyo Ikebukuro (Opened November 1st, 2022) Every room has a PC with access to the room's Metaverse Room. An eSports Room for up to five guests can play is also available.   - MIMARU SUITES Tokyo Asakusa (To open December 22nd, 2022) All rooms have two separate bedrooms for a high-quality vacation house experience.   - MIMARU Osaka Shinsaibashi East (Opened October 6th, 2022) Enjoy drinks and a Japanese local restaurant atmosphere with short curtains, paper lanterns, and a food stall.   - MIMARU Osaka Shinsaibashi North (Opened November 24th, 2022) The decor is based on the Osaka Castle, the iconic symbol of Osaka; the lobby has a "golden tea room" and a display of Japanese samurai armor.   While many visitors to Japan travel with their families or in groups, hotels that offer the luxury of relaxation to such large groups are limited in most urban areas. Apartment Hotel MIMARU hotels are located in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, offering excellent access. MIMARU accommodates large groups on extended stays, with spacious rooms (40 sq. meters and larger) furnished with stocked kitchens, a living/dining area, and laundromats in each hotel. The name MIMARU is a neologism from the Japanese phrase "MInna de toMARU" meaning "stay together." Many guests appreciate MIMARU's apartment-style hotels because they offer a comfortable home-away-from-home space to experience Japan, enabling guests to feel at home.   Photo2: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M107482/202212020735/_prw_PI3fl_N71kf02K.png     MIMARU also has diverse themed rooms that make the Japan experience even more memorable. The Pokemon Room, where a huge stuffed Snorlax and original Pokemon-themed tableware await guests, is immensely popular among Pokemon fans from around the world. Visitors can also play "Find the Hidden Ninja!" in the Ninja Room, created under the supervision of the Japan Ninja Council, with displays of "shuriken" (ninja stars) and scrolls and ninja motifs hiding in surprising places. Other themed rooms include a Premium Party Room furnished with a sushi counter and an Ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock print) Room adorned with works by Hokusai and original MIMARU works created by modern ukiyo-e artists. Guests can experience Japan in an entertaining way.   Photo3: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M107482/202212020735/_prw_PI4fl_U8kxXh01.png     (C) Pokemon. (C) Nintendo/Creatures Inc./GAME FREAK inc. TM, (R), and character names are trademarks of Nintendo.   MIMARU staff members are fans of Japan from around the world. Many are multilingual and able to communicate smoothly in Japanese and English; some MIMARU hotels have staff fluent in Chinese, Spanish, and Korean as well. These staff members are MIMARU guests' reliable partners to make extraordinary trips together.   Photo4: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M107482/202212020735/_prw_PI1fl_Af9D39z6.png     Three Apartment Hotel MIMARU locations have been selected in the Top 20 of "Best Hotels in Japan 2020 by International Travelers," announced in the Inbound Report 2020 by Tripadvisor (R), the world's largest travel guidance platform. - 6th Place: MIMARU Tokyo Hatchobori - 10th Place: MIMARU Tokyo Ueno Inaricho - 12th Place: MIMARU Tokyo Akasaka   Logo of Tripadvisor's Best Hotels in Japan 2020: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M107482/202212020735/_prw_PI5fl_BJko8n3z.png     For more information about the unique experiences in MIMARU, please visit the website: MIMARU Website: https://mimaruhotels.com/en/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mimaruhotels/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mimaruhotels/   For each picture, please visit the link below: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/release/202212020735?p=images   Cosmos Hotel Management - Head office: Tokyo, Minato - President: Hideki Fujioka - Contact Us https://mimaruhotels.com/en/contact-us/   Logo: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M107482/202212020735/_prw_PI6fl_31fAS2Hp.png       Source: Cosmos Hotel Management Co., Ltd.   http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=44973

NAN SHAN GENERAL INSURANCE RATINGS UNCHANGED -- AM BEST

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 5 (Bernama) -- Taiwan’s Nan Shan General Insurance Co Ltd’s “A-” (Excellent) financial strength rating and “a-” (Excellent) long-term issuer credit rating remained unchanged, said rating agency AM Best.

In a statement, AM Best said this was based on its expectation of Nan Shan General’s business and capital plans over the short to intermediate term and in view of the negative impact from COVID-19 pandemic insurance claims on the company’s financials as of the end of September 2022. 

It said that Nan Shan General’s reported capital and surplus declined by more than half during the first nine months of 2022 to NT$2.0 billion. (NT$100=RM14.33)

“The main drag was a net loss of NT$1.3 billion attributable to significant claims related to pandemic insurance products and negative changes in other comprehensive income due to unfavourable capital market conditions.

“Nonetheless, the company’s local solvency ratio remained above the regulatory minimum as of the end of September 2022,” it said.

AM Best said Nan Shan General also experienced material adverse claims arising from pandemic insurance products and has provisioned additional claims reserves in the third quarter of 2022 for its in-force pandemic products based on more conservative assumptions.

It said the company’s business scale is small within its parent, Nan Shan Life Insurance Co Ltd, but it benefitted from the distribution support from the parent’s life agency force in sourcing the majority of its premium revenue, in particular for personal line products such as voluntary motor.

Moreover, AM Best viewed the parent as resourceful and willing to provide explicit and implicit financial support to Nan Shan General when needed.

“AM Best will continue to closely monitor the pandemic insurance claims development and hold discussions with Nan Shan General’s management to evaluate any subsequent implications on the company’s rating fundamentals,” it added.

-- BERNAMA

Napier’s financial crime risk management platform available to the Japanese market

 

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 30 (Bernama) -- Financial crime compliance specialist Napier has announced that its end-to-end financial crime risk management platform, Napier Continuum, is available to the Japanese market via a newly-minted partnership with Japanese firm GRCS.

“In GRCS we have a partner with a strong reputation that understands not only the regional market, but also the technology.

“By working with partners like GRCS we can ensure that our solutions can be fully leveraged by local companies,” said Napier’s Global Head of Partnerships, Melissa Warren in a statement.

Meanwhile, Head of Business Development at GRCS, Joji Watanabe said: “With Napier’s advanced platform, we will be able to offer the highest standards of financial crime compliance to the local Japanese market and help clients meet regulatory best practices.

“The combination of Napier’s world-class technology and our regional expertise will give our clients full capabilities across the entire risk profile of their customers. We’re delighted to join up with Napier to supercharge our compliance efforts.”

Established in 2005 and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Market, GRCS provides expertise and solutions in governance, risk management, compliance, and security to regulated Japanese firms.

The partnership with Napier will see GRCS reselling, implementing and supporting locally Napier Continuum, its advanced financial crime risk management platform.

The move forms part of Napier’s strategy to secure partnerships and third-party alliances worldwide, in a strategic push to incorporate the expertise of regional partners to deliver tailored services in line with local regulations, risk landscapes and implementation requirements.

-- BERNAMA

GTJAI NAMED AS ONE OF THE 'BEST COMPANIES TO WORK FOR IN ASIA 2022'

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 1 (Bernama) -- Guotai Junan International Holdings Ltd (GTJAI) has been named as one of the Best Companies to Work For In Asia 2022 - Hong Kong Region by HR Asia, a professional human resources publication.

The award is recognised as prestigious in the field of human resources management in Asia.

To GTJAI, the award was a recognition of the company's high level of corporate governance and human resource management achievements from the market and industry.

“Under the severe epidemic and challenging market environment over years, our colleagues still maintained a positive work attitude to ensure the company's business is carried out smoothly.

“Human capital is GTJAI’s most valuable asset, and we will continue to make it a great and better place to work with, while providing a platform for employees to give full play to their strengths,” said chief executive officer and executive director of GTJAI, Qi Haiying in a statement.

GTJAI is the market leader and first mover for the internationalisation of Chinese Securities Company as well as the first Chinese securities broker listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange through an initial public offering.

-- BERNAMA

MARY KAY’S PROJECT FEATURED IN ECONOMIST IMPACT'S WORLD OCEAN SUMMIT IN SINGAPORE

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 30 (Bernama) -- A Mary Kay-supported project focused on women and conservation was featured in a panel session called “Innovation and adaptation - coastal solutions to climate change” at the Economist Impact’s World Ocean Summit Asia Pacific in Singapore.

The panel discussion covered how the effect of climate change is having on Asia-Pacific’s coastal ecosystems as well as on global oceans. It featured case studies on how the region is preparing for and adapting to climate change.

Mary Kay Inc, a global advocate for corporate sustainability and stewardship and signatory to the UN Global Compact Sustainable Ocean Principles, continues to support global efforts to increase ocean awareness and highlight the important role the ocean plays in efforts to combat climate change.

“Mangroves are vital to coastal ecosystems yet are one of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet,” it said in a statement.

To create long-term solutions for mangroves in Papua New Guinea, Mangoro Market Meri - an initiative supported by The Nature Conservancy and Mary Kay - is linking local efforts, ecotourism, and blue carbon (the carbon that is captured by the world's oceans and coastal ecosystems) to create incentives for mangrove protection and restoration.

The women of Mangoro Market Meri market produce sustainable mangrove products, such as shellfish and mud crabs to generate much-needed income and employment opportunities while also protecting mangroves from being harvested for their wood. 

With Mary Kay’s support, the women of Mangoro Market Meri receive training in gender equity, leadership, financial literacy, and business management.

Mary Kay is committed to being a good steward of natural resources while fostering gender equality and women’s empowerment in conservation across the globe. 

-- BERNAMA

ECO EXPO ASIA 2022 IN HONG KONG TO FOCUS ON DECARBONISING TECH

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 29 (Bernama) -- The Eco Expo Asia 2022 will be held at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from Dec 14 to 17, 2022.

The expo is jointly organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) and Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd and co-organised by the Environment and Ecology Bureau of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Themed “Green Innovations for Carbon Neutrality”, the expo will focus on the technological innovations that help decarbonise the world.

HKTDC said in a statement that the expo would be held under the brand-new EXHIBITION+ hybrid model, helping exhibitors and buyers extend interactions from a physical fair to the online platform “Click2Match” until Dec 24, and also assisting enterprises in exploring “green opportunities” proactively online and offline.

It will host over 200 exhibitors from nine countries and regions in nine thematic zones ranging from green transportation to green finance and more, facilitating exchange and cooperation between different industries under the eco umbrella.

Three country and regional pavilions will be returning this year, including the Canada, Hong Kong and Japan pavilions.

“The Japan pavilion will grow significantly in size featuring around 30 exhibitors with their latest products, solutions and technologies,” HKTDC said.

The expo will open its doors to the public on the last day to promote green living, with visitors able to participate in environmental workshops, green mart and seminars.

For more details, visit www.ecoexpoasia.com.

-- BERNAMA

NIPPON EXPRESS SHOWCASES RANGE OF SERVICES, PRODUCTS AT CIIE IN SHANGHAI

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 29 (Bernama) -- Japan’s logistics services company Nippon Express Holdings Inc showcased its range of services and products at the recently concluded fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, China.

According to a statement, the company’s booth promoted its long-established strengths including its global network, air and ocean cargo forwarding services, and business-continuity-plan-compatible intermodal transport services utilising the China Railway Express.

It said that initiatives for automation through the use of automatic guided vehicles in the logistics business as well as the actual cold storage containers and cooling agents used in its temperature-controlled transportation services for pharmaceutical products were also on display at the six-day exhibition from Nov 5 to 10, 2022.

“Through its participation in this expo, the group seeks to support the business expansion of its customers in the East Asia region by deepening relationships with these customers, strengthening ties with other relevant organisations, and forming new partnerships,” it said.

Founded in 1937, Nippon Express is a leading logistics and transportation services provider with a global network in over 739 locations around the world.

More details at https://www.nipponexpress.com/

-- BERNAMA

CLARITAS HEALTHTECH EXPANDS GLOBAL PRESENCE WITH INDIA OPERATIONS FOCUSING ON MEDICAL IMAGE ENHANCEMENT AND AI ASSISTED DIAGNOSTIC TOOLS

LONDON and SINGAPORE, Nov 22 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Claritas HealthTech (“Claritas”), a healthcare technology company specializing in advanced medical image enhancement and AI assisted diagnostic tools to aid and optimize the diagnostic workflow of clinicians, announces today it has selected Bengaluru in Karnataka as its base for its Indian business headquarters.

With an established presence in Singapore and a successful entry into the UK market, Claritas has selected Bengaluru as its base for India, to meet the vast and rapidly growing medical diagnostic requirements of the country. Mr. Chetan Baxi, Co-founder, and Director of Claritas, commented, “In the last two quarters this year, we have had strong demand from India for our technology that aids clinicians to interpret medical images with greater accuracy and efficiency. To meet this demand, and given the favourable market conditions, we have opted to establish an India unit dedicated to serving the Indian market. We expect these operations to commence by January 2023.”

As part of its global deployment initiative, Claritas will introduce its suite of products, including, iRAD™ for radiology image enhancement, iPET™ for PET and PET-CT/MRI accelerated acquisition and enhancement, and its suite of AI diagnostic tools, to meet the demand from the Indian health sector.

Mr. Baxi added, "India holds significant demand in-country for our products that improve diagnostic workflow without increasing capital or operating costs. Claritas enables customers to significantly improve patient care while improving productivity of their imaging and diagnostic departments." 

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=44795

Locatory.com seeing steady growth, set to meet aviation industry needs

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 (Bernama) -- Locatory.com, one of the world’s leading premium aircraft parts marketplaces, has been seeing steady growth for over a few years now, driven by the increase in clientele interest, driven by the continuous expansion of spare parts database.

Chief executive officer, Toma Matutyte said the company has continued to expand its spare parts database, which has been growing by 15 per cent per month.

“With cost optimisation and sustainability on everyone’s mind, the secondary aviation parts market is becoming an increasingly attractive opportunity.

“In 2022, we have received five times more requests for quotes compared to last year and are expecting this trend to continue into the next year,” she said in a statement today.

Being a tool for the simplified procurement of spare parts, Locatory.com, a family member of Avia Solutions Group, is deeply invested in the digitalisation of the process. 

“Our mission is to connect aircraft parts’ buyers and sellers via an innovative platform that enables our customers to find, buy and sell aircraft parts or repair services in commercial, original equipment manufacturer, maintenance, repair and overhaul, military and general aviation segments across the globe.

“We have a truly global team, with people from over 10 countries sharing ideas and expertise in improving the company. We have been steadily expanding by around 15 per cent each month and there are no plans of slowing down,” added Matutyte.

-- BERNAMA

Tessa Therapeutics seals exclusive agreement with Baylor College of Medicine

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 (Bernama) -- Tessa Therapeutics Limited (Tessa), a clinical-stage cell therapy company has announced the execution of an exclusive agreement with Baylor College of Medicine for worldwide commercial rights to the allogeneic Epstein-Barr virus specific T-cell (EBVST) technology platform.

The platform is jointly developed by Tessa’s Scientific Co-Founder, Malcolm Brenner, M.D., Ph.D., and his colleagues Cliona Rooney Ph.D. and Helen Heslop M.D., D.Sc. at Baylor College of Medicine.

Tessa’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Thomas Willemsen, said in a statement: “Securing exclusive worldwide commercial rights for therapies developed using the EBVST platform is an important value driver for Tessa as we continue to advance TT11X as a potential treatment for CD30-positive lymphomas, while exploring opportunities to extend the technology to other cancer indications, including solid tumours.”

Tessa is currently advancing a pipeline of products that utilise CD30.CAR-modified EBVSTs, including its lead allogeneic cell therapy, TT11X, which is being co-developed for the treatment of relapsed or refractory CD30-positive lymphomas.

Clinical data from an ongoing Phase 1 study of TT11X in CD30-positive lymphomas (BESTA) has demonstrated a favourable safety profile and encouraging signs of efficacy with clinical responses observed in seven of nine patients.

TT11X was recently recognised in the “Most Promising Off-the-Shelf Therapies” category at the Asia-Pacific Cell & Gene Therapy Excellence Awards (ACGTEA) 2022.

-- BERNAMA

TRIANGLE LIFE NAMES JON HACK AS BOARD CHAIRMAN

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 (Bernama) -- Triangle Life Ltd has announced the appointment of Jon Hack as non-executive chairman to the board, succeeding Niall O’Hare, its founder and chief executive officer, who has served as chairman since the company's inception in 2020.

“Jon’s background and expertise, and everything he has brought to our business in the past few months as adviser to the Board, make him an obvious choice to take on the role of chairman of the Board of Directors of Triangle Life.

“His deep experience in global life insurance and capital markets will help support our acceleration towards launch and our exciting growth prospects thereafter,” said O’Hare in a statement.

Meanwhile, Hack said: “Triangle Life is an excellent business with a clear purpose and a talented
management team. Niall and the rest of the team have identified a significant market opportunity and have built the company needed to respond to this need.

“I look forward to taking on the role of chairman to help drive Triangle Life’s success by delivering long-term and reliable solutions for brokers and clients.”

Bringing a wide range of skills and experience in value creation in life insurance as well as in capital raising, Hack was a founding principal and managing director of Resolution Life, a global life insurance group focused on the acquisition and management of portfolios of life insurance policies.

Triangle Life is a provider of life insurance products to high-net-worth individuals globally through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Triangle Life Insurance Co Ltd.

-- BERNAMA

MonetaGo, SWIFT fight fraud with live launch of Financing Validation Service

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 27 (Bernama) -- MonetaGo and SWIFT have achieved an important milestone in the global fight against fraud and duplicate financing with the live launch of the Trade Financing Validation Service provided by MonetaGo over the global SWIFT network.

In a statement, MonetaGo said the service was the first third-party service in trade available through the SWIFT API channel. 

“For the first time in the history of trade finance, there is now a global standardised system to check duplicate financing.

“The additional authentication services availed through the same system will provide greater assurance to lenders on the integrity of their financing transactions,” said MonetaGo chief executive officer Neil Shonhard.

SWIFT wholesale payments and trade strategy head Shirish Wadivkar said the validation service is a great example of how MonetaGo’s API platform could be harnessed to provide a single solution to help banks tackle fraud and financial crime at the international level.

The Trade Financing Validation Service’s live launch came after the successful completion of the pilot phase which saw the participation of 20 institutions on four continents, MonetaGo said.

“The service can now be accessed by all the 11,000 plus institutions in the SWIFT network.

“The participating institutions included some of the world’s largest trade finance banks, representing lenders in the US, the UK, Europe, Asia and Australia,” it added.

MonetaGo said the trade finance industry has a natively global solution that is interoperable by markets, institutions and platforms, enabling financiers to catch and stop cross-border fraud with the launch of the validation service over SWIFT.

MonetaGo provides the first-ever global solution to duplicate financing fraud in trade finance and is the world’s foremost provider of such technology to prevent both domestic and cross-border duplicate financing.

-- BERNAMA

UNIPHORE JOINS AWS ISV ACCELERATE PROGRAM

Brings powerful conversational AI and automation capabilities for seamless customer experience to Amazon Web Services customers

PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct 27 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Uniphore, the leader in conversational AI and automation, today announced it has been accepted into the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Accelerate Program, a co-sell program for AWS Partners who provide software solutions that run on or integrate with AWS. The program helps partners drive new business and accelerate sales cycles by connecting the participating ISVs with the AWS Sales organization.

Through the AWS ISV Accelerate Program, Uniphore receives focused co-selling support from AWS, access to further sales enablement resources, reduced AWS Marketplace listing fees, and incentives for AWS Sales teams. The program provides participating ISVs with access to millions of active AWS customers globally.

“We are delighted to be accepted into the AWS ISV Accelerate Program,” said Kennedy Pereira, VP, CCaaS Ecosystem, Global Alliances & Partnerships at Uniphore. “This is yet another proof of the value our technology brings to enterprises and our commitment to our customers. It’s also a testament of Uniphore being at the forefront of always delivering the most robust solutions through solid partnerships, like the one with the AWS Sales organization.”

Uniphore, whose conversational AI and automation products are used globally by enterprises in a range of industries, went through AWS’s comprehensive review process, including an extensive technical review of Uniphore’s platform and architecture as well as validation of Uniphore’s benefits for enterprise-level customers. AWS customers who deploy Uniphore can be confident in the platform’s integration with existing workloads and applications, supported by AWS.

About Uniphore

Uniphore is the global leader in Conversational Automation. Every day, billions of conversations take place across industries — customer service, sales, HR, education and more. Whether they are human to human, human to machine or machine to machine, conversations are at the heart of everything we do, and the new currency of the enterprise.

At Uniphore, we believe companies that best understand and take action on those conversations will win. We have built the most comprehensive and powerful platform that combines conversational AI, computer vision, emotion and tonal analysis, workflow automation, and RPA (Robotic Process Automation) with a business-user-friendly UX in a single integrated platform to transform and democratize customer experiences across industries. 

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=44557

Kyriba transforms cash forecasting with Liquidity Planning Platform

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 25 (Bernama) -- Kyriba, a global leader of cloud-based finance and IT solutions, has announced the launch of Liquidity Planning, a totally reimagined cash flow planning and forecasting solution.

“Forecasting has changed. CFOs must plan liquidity and free cash flow against multiple risk scenarios and they are demanding data and analytics to deliver forecast accuracy in real-time.

“The cost of ineffective forecasting has risen to unprecedented levels, with CFOs losing millions because they lack the tools to manage enterprise liquidity,” said Global Head of Market Strategy at Kyriba, Bob Stark, in a statement.

Liquidity Planning unifies FP&A, working capital and treasury data across multiple scenarios, giving CFOs data, insight and actionability to accurately manage the cash lifecycle and improve the accuracy of free cash flow projections.

Innovation from Kyriba’s Liquidity Planning Platform include Long Term Planning; Forecast Scenario Modeling; and Liquidity Analytics.

This is Kyriba’s fourth product innovation announced in the past three months to support CFOs during a time of unprecedented volatility and uncertainty. 

Liquidity Planning is complemented by Cash Management AI, FX Portfolio VaR Analysis and Commodities Risk Management.

More details at www.kyriba.com.

-- BERNAMA

Chongming's good air quality a boon to farms, crops

 

Caption: Chongming's fishery and electricity symbiosis, which includes a solar energy panel on a culture pond, benefits from natural resources.

Caption: Good air quality in Chongming

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 25 (Bernama) -- Chongming farmers have unanimously recognised the positive impact of good air on agricultural products.

Toxic gases in the air, such as sulphur dioxide, ozone and nitrogen oxides, can enter the leaves or crops through the open stomata on their surface, thus affecting photosynthesis efficiency and damaging leaf tissue, leading to yellowing, whitening and withering of the leaves.

The Shanghai Chongming District People’s Government Information Office said the excellence of air quality in Chongming Island increased from 80.5 per cent in 2017 to 92.8 per cent in 2021.

“The concentration of fine particulate matter PM2.5 decreased by 31.6 per cent during the same period,” it said in a statement.

It said the concentration of nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and nitric oxide continued to decrease, reaching the national first-class standard. Chongming’s overall air quality is one of the best among Shanghai’s 16 districts.

Farmers who plant crispy taros in Luhu Village are proud of their better quality products compared to neighbouring provinces. 

“We don’t use pesticides to enhance rice growth because the soil is good, the water is good, and the air is good,” said Huang Guochao, who planted rice in Miaozhen Town and initiated the “rice-fish symbiosis” project.

In addition, the 10 hectares of honey pear planted in Xinhe Town also require a high-growth environment, and only in Chongming can they grow well, local farmers added.

-- BERNAMA

Security information and event management spending to exceed US$6.4 bln by 2027 -- Juniper Research

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 17 (Bernama) -- Total business spending on security information and event management (SIEM) is expected to exceed US$6.4 billion globally by 2027, up from just over US$4.4 billion in 2022, according to a new Juniper Research study. (US$1=RM4.71)

It predicted that the 45 per cent growth will be driven by the transition from term licence, where businesses can use SIEM for specific licence lengths, to more flexible Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) models, where SIEM solutions are purchased via monthly subscription.

A SIEM system is a combination of security information management (SIM) and security event management (SEM), resulting in real-time automated analysis of security alerts generated by applications and network hardware, leading to improved corporate cybersecurity.

The research identified the world’s leading SIEM providers by evaluating their offerings and key factors leading to their respective success such as the breadth and depth of their platforms.

The top three vendors are IBM, Rapid7, and Splunk, according to a statement.

In addition, the research found that SaaS business models within SIEM are gaining traction, accounting for almost 73 per cent of global business spending on SIEM in 2027, from only 37 per cent in 2022. 

This significant increase represents an opportunity for newer vendors to break into the market with appealing SaaS-based models. Nonetheless, SIEM vendors must be careful not to ignore larger enterprises, which still prefer term licences.

Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports, and industry commentary.

-- BERNAMA

BHSI appoints Pedro Mairos as global underwriting officer, marine

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 (Bernama) -- Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance (BHSI) has appointed Pedro Mairos as the global underwriting officer, marine.

Mairos was previously BHSI’s head of Marine for the United Kingdom and Ireland.

“Our large global footprint, coupled with the substantial growth of our marine business, made now the optimal time to deepen the global leadership of our marine underwriting team worldwide.

“We are pleased to have such talents across both underwriting and claims sections to service our marine customers and brokers in local markets around the globe,” said BHSI’s Property and Marine chief underwriting officer, Dean LaPierre in a statement today.

Mairos joined BHSI in 2019, and has more than two decades of experience in the global marine market, including Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

BHSI offers a full range of marine insurance products worldwide, including inland transit, motor truck cargo, warehouse legal liability, builder’s risk, contractor’s equipment, ocean cargo, stock throughputs, project cargo and marine equipment, including subsea equipment.

-- BERNAMA

eCloudvalley among best companies to work for in Asia 2022

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 17 (Bernama) -- eCloudvalley Digital Technology was recently named one of the best companies to work for in Asia by the leading human resources magazine HR Asia.

The magazine has distributed a series of questionnaires to multiple organisations for employees to answer anonymously.

According to the study, eCloudvalley is far ahead of the market average in terms of “encouraging innovation, building a shared and flexible environment, and creating a friendly working atmosphere”.

The culture of eCloudvalley is deeply rooted in their Day 1 innovative spirit which has resulted in their impeccable working conditions.

“The cloud industry is rapidly changing, and only those with a growth mindset can face the unknown challenges. Everyone in eCloudvalley is a market game changer.

“As eCloudvalley continues to grow and our talent pool expands, we remain committed to the spirit of Day 1 and embrace innovation,” said chief executive officer MP Tsai in a statement.

The born-in-the-cloud company has established a strategic recruiting process to target potential cloud talents through its own recruiting process called “STAR Principle”, an acronym for Situation, Task, Action, and Result.

It requires recruiters to ask situational questions and assess whether candidates can provide innovative and flexible solutions in a limited amount of time.

eCloudvalley has grown to over 600 employees with 10 locations in the Asia Pacific region.

-- BERNAMA

AGC secures first environmental product declaration for architectural glass in Asia-Pacific

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 11 (Bernama) -- AGC Inc (AGC) has announced the acquisition of its first environmental product declaration (EPD) for float glass manufactured at its two Asian plants - PT Asahimas Flat Glass Tbk and AGC Flat Glass (Thailand) Plc.

According to a statement, this is the first EPD attained by the AGC Group for architectural glass manufactured in the Asia-Pacific region.

The EPD obtained by AGC discloses the environmental impact of the architectural glass's production stage. It benefits owners, architects, specifiers, and building professionals by enabling them to evaluate the environmental impacts associated with building materials.

The EPD is a type III environmental declaration compliant with the ISO 14025 standard and verified by the Sustainable Management Promotion Organisation's (SuMPO) Japan EPD programme.

The environmental declaration also meets the requirements of the government's building regulations, as well as contributes to earning points for obtaining green building scheme certifications, since green building rating systems award credits for building projects that use EPD-certified materials. 

The AGC Group will utilise this EPD to contribute to green purchasing and procurement in the construction industry in Asia.

The company will also widen its EPD coverage to high-performance glass products, such as coated glass, double-glazing units and decorative glass manufactured at Asian plants.

-- BERNAMA

ELASTIC APPOINTS BARRIE SHEERS VICE PRESIDENT, ASIA-PACIFIC AND JAPAN

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 6 (Bernama) -- Elastic, a leading platform for search-powered solutions and the company behind Elasticsearch, has announced the appointment of Barrie Sheers as vice president, Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ). 

Based in Singapore, Sheers will report directly to Elastic’s Chief Sales Officer, Michael Cremen, according to a statement.

“I'm thrilled to welcome Barrie to Elastic. He joins us at a significant time as we continue building market momentum and accelerate our cloud business,” said Cremen.

“Barrie’s deep expertise in the cloud market, coupled with his extensive experience in creating and executing go-to-market strategies in the APJ region, will position Elastic for accelerated growth and scale while helping our customers solve the problems that truly matter.”

Sheers will lead Elastic’s business strategy and operations in APJ and will be responsible for overall business growth, particularly strategic growth initiatives and long-term strategies to drive cloud hypergrowth, opportunities in new market segments, and increase customer lifetime value.

He brings over 20 years of executive-level experience leading high-performing, customer-centric teams at some of the world’s largest cloud and enterprise technology companies.

“It is an exciting time to join Elastic and leverage my cloud experience to strengthen existing and new customer relationships and accelerate the company’s ongoing momentum to its next phase of growth,” said Sheers.

Sheers joins Elastic from Microsoft, where he served as chief partner officer, APJ, responsible for building the partner ecosystem across Asia to improve sales performance.

-- BERNAMA

NAPIER WELCOMES INDUSTRY LEADER JULIAN CLARKE TO LEAD ITS GLOBAL CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT

 

Napier welcomes industry leader Julian Clarke to lead its global corporate development (Graphic: Business Wire)

LONDON, Oct 5 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Napier, a global end-to-end intelligent compliance platform and provider of advanced financial crime risk management solutions, has announced the appointment of Julian Clarke as its new Global Head of Corporate Development.
 

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221004005975/en/
 

In his new role, Clarke is set to work closely with Napier’s CEO, Greg Watson, to develop a robust strategy for the firm’s global third-party distribution, including partnerships and alliances.

Clarke’s addition to the Napier team brings considerable expertise in corporate development, gained from over 20 years at the likes of Capgemini, Sopra Steria and, most recently, as Fenergo’s Vice President and Head of Global Partners and Alliances.

Continuing the award-winning RegTech’s trajectory of aggressive expansion, corporate development under Clarke will form a key pillar of Napier’s growth strategy over the next several years, with a view to solidify its presence in existing markets and expand its global footprint.

“It is tremendously exciting to join Napier at this point of its expansion. As a market-leading vendor offering exceptional technology to combat financial crime, Napier is in an excellent position to build upon and foster new relationships to create a world-class distribution network to deliver the best services and new opportunities for our clients,” said Clarke.

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=44375

CONFLUENT REIMAGINES DATA PIPELINES FOR THE STREAMING ERA WITH STREAM DESIGNER

Accelerate the shift to real-time with the industry’s first visual interface for building, testing, and deploying data pipelines natively on Apache Kafka^®

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct 5 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ: CFLT), the data streaming pioneer, today announced Stream Designer, a visual interface that enables developers to build and deploy streaming data pipelines in minutes. This point-and-click visual builder is a major advancement toward democratizing data streams so they are accessible to developers beyond specialized Apache Kafka experts. With more teams able to rapidly build and iterate on streaming pipelines, organizations can quickly connect more data throughout their business for agile development and better, faster, in-the-moment decision making.

"We are in the middle of a major technological shift, where data streaming is making real time the new normal, enabling new business models, better customer experiences, and more efficient operations,” said Jay Kreps, Cofounder and CEO, Confluent. “With Stream Designer we want to democratize this movement towards data streaming and make real time the default for all data flow in an organization.”

In the streaming era, data streaming is the default mode of data operations for successful modern businesses. The streaming technologies that were once at the edges have become core to critical business functions. This shift is fueled by the growing demand to deliver data instantaneously and scalably across a full range of customer experiences and business operations. Traditional batch processing can no longer keep pace with the growing number of use cases that depend on sub-millisecond updates across an ever-expansive set of data sources.

Organizations are seeking ways to accelerate their data streaming initiatives as more of their business is operating in real time. Kafka is the de facto standard for data streaming, as it enables over 80% of Fortune 100 companies to reliably handle large volumes and varieties of data in real time. However, building streaming data pipelines on open-source Kafka requires large teams of highly specialized engineering talent and time-consuming development spread across multiple tools. This puts pervasive data streaming out of reach for many organizations and leaves existing legacy pipelines clogged with stale and outdated data.

“A rising number of organizations are realizing streaming data is imperative to achieving innovation and maintaining a healthy business,” said Amy Machado, Research Manager, Streaming Data Pipeline, IDC. “Businesses need to add more streaming use cases, but the lack of developer talent and increasing technical debt stand in the way. Visual interfaces, like Stream Designer, are key advancements to overcoming these challenges and make it easier to develop data pipelines for existing teams and the next generation of developers.”

Stream Designer: The First Visual Interface for Rapidly Building Streaming Data Pipelines Natively on Kafka

“Data streaming is quickly becoming the central nervous system of our infrastructure as it powers real-time customer experiences across our 12 countries of operations,” said Enes Hoxha, Enterprise Architect, Raiffeisen Bank International. “Stream Designer’s low-code, visual interface will enable more developers, across our entire organization, to leverage data in motion. With a unified, end-to-end view of our streaming data pipelines, it will improve our developer productivity by making real-time applications, pipeline development, and troubleshooting much easier.” 

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=44371

Super Typhoon-inflicted losses manageable for Japan insurers - Best's Commentary

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27 (Bernama) -- Given Super Typhoon Nanmadol’s reduced strength upon landfall and the parts of Japan affected, AM Best expects insured losses to be manageable for Japan’s non-life insurers.

In its Best’s Commentary, “Manageable Impact of Super Typhoon Nanmadol on Insured Losses,” AM Best states that large insurers in Japan are well-capitalised and their comprehensive reinsurance programmes will protect them from a significant impact on capital.

If insured losses are not high from the event, which mainly affected the agriculture-heavy island of Kyushu, the amount of losses passed to reinsurers may not be significant.

However, secondary perils such as hurricane-induced flooding, storm surges and landslides are not modelled to the same extent as primary perils, and loss creep was an issue for insurers after 2018’s Typhoon Jebi.

According to a statement, the commentary also notes that any catastrophic event after above-average catastrophe years may cause reinsurers to revisit their risk appetite and underwriting.

United States-headquartered AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specialising in the insurance industry.

The company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City.

For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

-- BERNAMA

GALLIUM SEMICONDUCTOR UNVEILS NEW GAN TRANSISTOR PRODUCT PORTFOLIO

MILAN, Sept 27 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Gallium Semiconductor, an innovative supplier of RF Gallium Nitride (GaN) semiconductor solutions, today unveiled its broad portfolio of RF Power Transistor products at the European Microwave Week 2022 Conference.

At the conference booth (#B25), Gallium Semi is showcasing a wide variety of GaN solutions for 5G infrastructure, aerospace and defense, public safety, and industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) applications. Key product highlights include:

• Known good die of GaN devices optimally designed for low thermal resistance and ranging from 10 to 400 Watts of saturated output power
• Unmatched GaN transistors in low cost plastic DFN packages with high reliability and excellent heat dissipation
• Easy-to-use broadband and pre-matched GaN transistors in air cavity packages
• Innovative dual path transistor solutions for 5G networks with excellent digital pre-distortion capability

These products deliver optimal performance for output power, gain, efficiency, and bandwidth. "Customers continue to demand RF power amplifiers that deliver high performance with high efficiency," said Michael Guyonnet, Vice President of Networks for Gallium Semi. "Our innovative GaN solutions provide breakthrough performance that customers require for their critical communication, radar and ISM applications." The new RF power transistors and evaluation boards are currently available for sampling to qualified customers. Gallium Semi’s full product catalog in electronic format is available for download at www.galliumsemi.com/downloads.

For additional information and sales contacts, please visit www.galliumsemi.com.

About Gallium Semiconductor

Gallium Semiconductor’s mission is to enable mass commercialization of Gallium Nitride (GaN) based semiconductor solutions for 5G mobile communications, aerospace and defense and industrial, scientific and medical applications. We combine the best global talents from engineering to manufacturing operations with experienced business leaders to cost effectively deliver the highest performance and efficiency semiconductors for next generation RF, microwave and millimeter-wave systems. Visit us at www.galliumsemi.com to learn more. 

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=44287

GREG WATSON TAKES THE HELM AS CEO OF NAPIER

 

Greg Wilson takes the helm as Napier CEO (Photo: Business Wire)

Former CEO Julian Dixon moves to full-time role as Founder and Board Member

LONDON, Sept 21 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Napier, a global end-to-end intelligent compliance platform and provider of advanced financial crime risk management solutions, has announced that its current Chief Operations Officer Greg Watson, is to take the helm as Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect, as former CEO Julian Dixon moves into a full-time role as Founder and Board Member.
 

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220919005120/en/

Greg’s tenure at Napier as well his wealth of experience in operational management and business strategy, gained at the likes of Fenergo, HSBC and UBS, makes him the ideal choice to lead Napier into its next phase of growth, building on the past several successful years of rapid expansion for the flourishing company.

“Greg’s an outstanding candidate for the position. His experience and understanding of our products and clients is exemplary, as is his commitment to making Napier the pre-eminent provider of AI-enhanced financial crime risk management software. I’m looking forward to seeing him take the company from strength to strength,” said Julian Dixon.

http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=44232

AM BEST TO PRESENT AT MICROINSURANCE NETWORK'S VIRTUAL COUNTRY WORKSHOPS

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 21 (Bernama) -- Global credit rating agency, AM Best will sponsor and deliver a presentation at the Microinsurance Network’s virtual country workshops for India and the Philippines, taking place Sept 21 and 26, respectively.

The Microinsurance Network was established in 2002 by donors, multilateral agencies, non-governmental organisations, private insurance companies and other interested parties, and is the only global multi-stakeholder platform that promotes the development and delivery of effective risk management tools, including insurance services, for underserved people.

During these workshops, Rob Curtis, managing director of market development for the Asia-Pacific region at AM Best, will speak on the importance of supporting environmental, social and governance principals through the rating agency’s credit rating criteria.

United States-headquartered AM Best is a sponsor of each event. The India workshop is themed “Democratising Insurance: Driving Inclusion Through Innovation.” The Philippine-focused event is titled, “Nature-Positive Insurance: The Upside For People, Planet And Business”; The Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association is a co-sponsor.

AM Best has played a key role in these country workshops, and has participated and/or sponsored ones focused on the insurance markets of Brazil, Mexico and Morocco, as well as a previous workshop on the Philippines; each event addressed barriers and possible solutions needed for developing a microinsurance market.

According to a statement, Curtis recently joined AM Best after more than three decades of experience in the insurance industry, and previously was the head of the major groups and technical expert teams at Hong Kong’s Insurance Authority (IA), responsible for the development of Hong Kong’s new group-wide supervision and macro-prudential frameworks.

He is also co-chief executive officer of A.M. Best Asia-Pacific (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.

For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

-- BERNAMA

IMMUNOSCAPE FINANCING FACILITATES DISCOVERY OF CANCER-SPECIFIC T-CELL RECEPTORS

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 21 (Bernama) -- ImmunoScape, a pre-clinical biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of next-generation TCR-T-cell therapeutics, announced it has raised US$14 million in new financing. (US$1 = RM4.564)

Existing investor Anzu Partners led the round with participation from new investor Amgen Ventures and Singapore-based global investor EDBI.

“We have made significant strides in our discovery programme and have identified several compelling clinical TCR candidates using our Deep Immunomics platform,” said ImmunoScape Chief Executive Officer, Choon Peng Ng in a statement.

“The new funding will allow us to expedite our development efforts and help us to advance our therapeutic candidates toward the clinic.”

ImmunoScape’s differentiated Deep Immunomics platform utilises the company’s proprietary combinatorial barcoding technology to enable the discovery and indepth characterisation of rare cancer-specific T-cells at high resolution.

ImmunoScape’s platform is able to simultaneously evaluate tens of millions of T-cells in blood samples from hundreds of cancer patients to identify rare clinically relevant T-cell clones. 

The corresponding TCRs are then evaluated and prioritised to build a diverse portfolio of TCR-T-cell therapies.

By leveraging computational biology and machine learning, together with high throughput screening and evaluation of T-cell clones, ImmunoScape is able to efficiently identify novel T-cell therapy targets and TCR candidates. 

ImmunoScape has extensively validated its computational platform using virus-specific T-cells and is applying the same methods to build an extensive portfolio of cancer-specific TCRs.

More details at https://immunoscape.com/.

-- BERNAMA

South, Southeast Asian reinsurers improve underwriting but challenges remain - AM Best

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 20 (Bernama) -- Reinsurance companies in South and Southeast Asia (S/SEA) posted an improved combined ratio in 2021, although underwriting performance remains pressured with a continued reliance on investments to achieve bottom-line profitability, according to global credit rating agency, AM Best.

The new Best’s Market Segment Report, “Meeting Cost of Capital Elusive for South and Southeast Asian Reinsurers Despite Improved Underwriting Performance,” is part of AM Best’s month-long look at the global reinsurance industry ahead of Rendez-Vous de Septembre in Monte Carlo. 

According to the report, S/SEA reinsurers recorded an overall combined ratio of 108 per cent in 2021, a five-percentage-point improvement from the recent high in 2019.

Despite the improvement in technical performance, AM Best notes that overall return on equity declined to 3.4 per cent in 2021 due to low investment yields amid a prolonged low interest rate environment in most S/SEA markets.

“Even with rate improvements in the past two renewal seasons, the pricing increases may not be enough to see significant improvement in technical profitability given expected increases in loss costs should higher inflation persist.

“Reinsurers will need a prudent investment and retrocession strategy, along with continued underwriting discipline,” said director, analytics, AM Best, Michael Dunckley.

Meanwhile, AM Best senior financial analyst, Kanika Thukral said: “Although investment returns are expected to increase over the near term alongside a recovery in interest rates, rising inflation in the region is likely to pose challenges in meeting the cost of capital prospectively.”

According to a statement, AM Best still expects the segment to see stable growth, supported by the expansion of primary insurance markets with economic recovery and increased insurance penetration.

The report notes that reinsurers in the region have approached 2022 renewals with focus on achieving technical profitability, due to the expectations of a challenging investment landscape and an inflationary environment.

More details at www.ambest.com.

-- BERNAMA

Lightning Network startup Neutronpay raised US$2.25 million in Seed funding June 1

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 15 (Bernama) -- Neutronpay, a Vancouver, Canada and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam based startup that enables consumers and businesses to send and receive payments on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network raised USD$2.25M in Seed funding on June 1. (US$1 = RM4.527)

The Lightning Network is a “layer 2” payment protocol which sits atop Bitcoin and facilitates instantly settled payments measured in milliseconds, is capable of millions of transactions per second and allows for exceptionally low fees, which all combined makes it the ideal payment network of any type, period.

Lightning has the potential to replace all debit, credit and wire transactions globally. Because of its interoperability anyone with a Lightning enabled app could spend or send funds in local currency at any merchant or person worldwide. Online, in-store, cross-border, micro, real-time, Lightning can do it!

The round was led by Hivemind Ventures with additional funding coming from venture firms Republic, Cavalry, Ride Wave, Studio, Iterative, Fulgur Ventures and individual investors Bill Crowley (former Chief Product Officer - Hyperwallet) and Lisa Shields (Founder & former CEO - Hyperwallet *Acquired by PayPal).

The funding has helped with additional headcount across various departments, with a focus on further development of enterprise APIs, soon to be rolled out mobile consumer app, sales & marketing and compliance.

Founded in 2018 by CEO Albert Buu, Neutronpay is the first Lightning company with an initial focus on Vietnam's 100m person population, with additional countries to follow throughout South East Asia.

“Making the move to Vietnam three years ago was my commitment to following through on this vision. Laying the infrastructure for Lightning across South East Asia would make it very easy for locals to better transact with each other and for the rest of the world to transact in the region whether while on vacation or for doing business,” Buu was quoted as saying in a statement.

For more information, visit www.neutronpay.com.

-- BERNAMA

MITSUI CHEMICALS SHOWCASES AT FIND-DESIGN FAIR ASIA IN SINGAPORE NEW GLASS FILM, POSICA™ THAT IMPROVES VIEW EXPERIENCE

TOKYO, Sept 14 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (Tokyo: 4183; President & CEO: HASHIMOTO Osamu) announced today that it will be exhibiting at the FIND-DESIGN FAIR ASIA, which is set to be held at Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre in Singapore over from 22 to 24 September, 2022.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: 
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220913005082/en/

 

What is posica™?

Many times when we stood behind a window looking out at the skyline or scenery, we all would had questioned ourselves that “the view should be even more spectacular as the weather is brilliant”.

Our new glass film, posica™ is a solution that redesigns the window scenery and change the view experience. By sticking posica™ to the window, you can control the incident light. Scenery looks more natural and vivid, creating exciting moments for people. Objects and physical items look more beautiful, and food look even more delicious.

Create a sense of openness through the windows of resort hotels. Further enhance happiness and create lasting memories in wedding halls. Refresh office spaces to improve focus. Share delicious flavors on displays in restaurants and patisserie. Redesign the scenery and make people's hearts dance, posica™ will change your experiences.

Please come and experience the new world that posica™ brings to you at FIND-DESIGN FAIR ASIA. We look forward to seeing you at booth number A39.
https://www.designfairasia.com/exhibitor-collection/mitsui-chemicals/

Exhibition details

Date: 22 to 24 September, 2022
Venue: Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre, Singapore
Booth: A39

Follow us on LinkedIn for more updates from Mitsui Chemicals Group. 

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ST JAMES'S PLACE UPGRADES FINANCIAL CRIME DEFENCES WITH NAPIER'S ADVANCED SCREENING TOOL

 

St James’s Place upgrades financial crime defences with Napier’s advanced screening tool (Graphic: Business Wire)

LONDON, Sept 7 (Bernama-BUSINESS WIRE) -- Napier, provider of advanced financial crime compliance solutions, has partnered with one of UK’s top wealth management and financial planning specialists, St. James’s Place. The partnership will upgrade SJP’s client and entity screening capabilities, strengthening and enabling agility within its financial crime compliance function.
 

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220905005400/en/ 

With Napier’s AI-enhanced screening solution, St James’s Place can leverage large-scale, ongoing customer screening and re-screening capabilities. The solution provides SJP with the tools to continuously screen entities against global watch lists of sanctions, politically exposed persons, adverse media, as well as any internal whitelists and blacklists, across the entire organisation.

Chris Thomas, Group Money Laundering Reporting Officer at St. James’s Place, said: “We are very pleased with the performance of the system to date. At SJP we prioritise offering the most secure and compliant financial services solutions, and part of that commitment is investing in the best and most robust technologies available to always stay one step ahead of financial criminals”.

“The fact that we are now able to undertake daily screening means that management of the operational workflow is far more efficient. The system offers greater flexibility than the previous one, and there are lots of opportunities for further automation of the review and decisioning process.”

Julian Dixon, founder and CEO at Napier, said: “The regulatory landscape moves at a rate of knots, and organisations must be agile, continuously adapting their approaches to financial crime compliance. A single, rigid solution won’t keep an organisation secure for very long- which is why organisations must embrace flexible, modern technologies. Napier’s customer screening solution enables faster screening and decision making, which is why SJP’s journey with us has already seen its use of our solution expand.”

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220905005400/en/ 

Contact 
John Sullivan
napier@contextpr.co.uk 

Source : Napier

--BERNAMA