SMEs in Africa to benefit as lenders tap mobile technology

Finca, a US microfinance organisation, and First Access, a New York-based data analytics company, have formed a partnership to start making loans over east Africa using credit scores derived from mobile phone data.

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. This kind of uncollateralised lending has already started to transform Kenya’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector. Hundreds of thousands of loans worth more than $150m have been issued since March 2015 when Kenya Commercial Bank, the country’s largest bank, and M-Pesa, the mobile money platform of Safaricom, the dominant telecoms company, began collaborating.

The vast majority of borrowers were previously considered uncreditworthy because of their lack of credit history and access to financial services. However, KCB-Mpesa accepts about 80 per cent of applicants, with an average loan size of Ks4,000 ($40) and a default rate of just under 2 per cent.

“It’s much more efficient and accurate than the old system and we’re seeing much earlier repayments,” said Joshua Oigara, KCB chief executive.

Growth is proving exponential. “Every second a new loan is issued, and we’re only a year into this service,” said Bob Collymore, chief executive of Safaricom.

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. Now Finca, which serves 1.8m people in 23 countries, said it would roll out this kind of lending in six African countries by the end of the year having completed a pilot study in Tanzania.

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. Andree Simon, co-chief executive of Finca Microfinance Holding Company, said the partnership will give the organisation “more objective information to form a credit recommendation and more time to improve the quality of our relationship with our clients”.

Shivani Siroya, chief executive of InVenture, a US start-up that launched its Mkopo Rahisi loan service via an Android app in March 2014, said it took 20 seconds to scan someone’s phone and determine whether they were creditworthy.

Like the other providers, InVenture is using increasingly detailed data to make credit decisions. For example, the Santa Monica-based company found that if at least 40 per cent of an applicant’s contacts were organised with both first and second names they were 16 times more likely to repay on time.

ICS Participates at Dot Finance Africa Event...as GTB upgrades software

ICS Financial Systems (ICSFS), the global software and services provider for banks and financial institutions, has showcased its Awards wining universal banking and financial software; ICS BANKS, at Dot Finance Africa event that was held at the Visa Oshwal Centre, earlier this May, 2016.

The two-day event included more than 400 high-quality attendees and 50 exhibitors in attendance. Dot Finance connected senior executives of Africa's top banks & financial institutions with leading financial technology vendors from across the globe such as ICSFS, which was exhibiting in booth stand number B3.

ICSFS’ Executive Director for Business Development Mr. Wael Malkawi said;

“It was great to see so many attendees exploring our booth and taking advantage of this opportunity to discover what ICSFS technologies has to offer. We were overwhelmed by the great demand on our ICS BANKS and ICS BANKS ISLAMIC solutions.” Mr. Malkawi continued “26% of our customers are based in Africa and are using our universal banking solution ICS BANKS. We are keen to grow our customer base across the Sub-Saharan region, as we are now investing and building solid partnerships in East Africa; such as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.”

ICSFS showcased its flagship; ICS BANKS solutions, which provides a complete suite of banking business modules with a rich sweep of functionality and features, addressing business needs and automating accounting processes, as needed, to improve a bank’s business performance. ICS BANKS has always been a pioneer in utilizing the latest technology to serve financial institutions. In addition to its embedded Service-Oriented-Architecture (SOA), ICS BANKS is deployed in a multi-tiered setup that runs on a web thin client.

This is coming on the heels of the recent upgrade of its solution by leading financial powerhouse in Nigeria, Guarrantee Trust Bank Plc. GTBank, one of the largest banks in Africa and the multiple awards wining bank that was named “Africa’s Most Innovative Bank for 2015”, successfully upgraded to the latest version of the awards winning solution ICS BANKS from ICS Financial Systems Limited (ICSFS).

GTBank has gone through one of the most successful and seamless major upgrades in the industry, completed at GTBank’s headquarters that is located in Nigeria, where it upgraded to the latest version of ICS BANKS. The project started on June of 2015 and ended in October of 2015, where the migration had near-zero-downtime.

High level of performance was achieved by ICS BANKS, where a new record of the entire end-of-day activities for 250 branches serving around 8M customers & 13M accounts & 4M daily transactions are being completed in a record time.

Flip phone lovers hail Motorola’s new RAZR ad...hopes for comeback!

Once the best-selling flip phone in the world and one of the best selling mobiles full stop, the Razr was a style icon but as technology advanced and the all-conquering iPhone brought a new must-have look to phones it fell out of favour.

Motorola got tongues wagging recently with a nostalgic 90s-themed ad featuring teens flaunting the old school RAZR flip phone but comes with “Flip back to the RAZR days of yesteryear and get ready for the future,” reads the new 45-second spot’s tagline.

“We will transform mobile again on June 9," a Motorola rep cryptically told The Daily News, noting that the company is not re-releasing the original RAZR.

But “Hello Moto” maniacs are still hoping that an upgraded flip phone is on the line. There’s certainly an audience for it. When Sarah Lisovich’s iPhone broke, she dug up her hot pink V3 RAZR flip phone that she’s held onto for 10 years as a replacement. The simplified device was a welcome change.

Now, however, Motorola has hinted that the flip phone could be returning. The video’s title refers to the date of the Lenovo Tech World conference, where an announcement on the replacement for Motorola’s flagship Moto X is expected.

Motorola is saying little else at the moment but industry experts believe that the video could indeed be a precursor to a new clamshell phone. Whatever form the new handset takes it’s guaranteed to be a massive step up from the original Razr.

Stylish it may have been but its 2.2-inch non-touch screen, 0.3 megapixel camera and rudimentary web access are woeful in today’s world of octa-core beasts with multiple cameras and endless connectivity possibilities.

The new handset is expected to run Google’s Android operating system and come with specifications to take on the big players in today’s mobile market such as Apple and Samsung.

While flip phones declined in popularity in Europe, they have remained popular in Japan and the market is, in fact, growing. Analysts believe that a growing number of older users who don’t want all the bells and whistles of most modern smartphones could be driving up the demand and that Europe could follow in Japan’s footsteps.

Flip phone and “dumb” phone sales grew by 2 million in the U.S. last year, for a total of 24.2 million sold, according to research firm IDC. Smartphones are still far more popular, but their growth remained flat in 2015. And Apple reported its first loss in 13 years last month as iPhone sales dropped 16%.

Basic handsets are making a comeback. Trendsetters such as Anna Wintour and Rihanna have been seen rocking the throwback devices. Adele featured a flip phone in her hit “Hello” video last fall. Robert DeNiro told People he still has a flip phone because “they’re easy to use!” Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne said he “felt far more alive” after dumping his iPhone last year. And Mayor Bill de Blasio reminded us in January that “I love my flip phone.”

True, a dumb phone can’t hail an Uber, order sushi on Seamless, stream “Game of Thrones” or post a photo to Instagram or Facebook. But as a result, the pared-down handset is much cheaper, because there’s no data plan. The battery can last for weeks, not hours. And the sturdy device survives falls better than a smartphone’s exposed glass screen.

View 4 screens in-one with new Dell 43-inch 4K with 1080p panels

Running multiple display monitors on the same PC, with each of them capable of showing its own specific content, is definitely something that someone can get used to in a hurry if they have a lot of PC-related work to cover.

Well, for those who have been doing something like this for years with multiple HD PC monitors daisy-chained together across your work space, the new Dell Multi-Client 43 inch 4K UHD monitor simplifies things enormously while saving plenty of space across your physical desktop.

Dell’s newest P4317Q (also known as the Dell 43 Multi-Client Monitor) is designed to alleviate these problems. While the display can run as a single monitor at 3840×2160, its real strength is as a bezel-less option to display up to four separate desktops, each at 1080p.

Multi-monitor desktops are popular with both professional computer users and enthusiast gamers who want a more immersive widescreen experience, but setting up these systems can be somewhat difficult. It’s generally recommended that you use three of the same display to minimize issues related to mixing and matching different resolutions, as well as to avoid differences in color gamut and calibration from changing how work appears from one monitor to the other.

Dell designed the Multi-Client Monitor with the finance industry in mind, but it's able to run four independent clients of any kind at once. Plus, it gets rid of the cable nightmare that comes with manually setting up four monitors on a single desk.

The P4317Q costs $1,350 and is available to purchase right now. It's certainly an impressive piece of technology, but maybe that high price point is meant to offset expected lower sales of Dell's multi-monitor stands.

Dell has been a leader in office computing needs for years now and apparently the company clearly understands that having access to multiple screens at the same time is something a lot of developers, traders and other professionals who stay glued to their PCs will find extremely useful. With this in mind, the single giant 43 inch P4317Q Multi-Client is ready right out of the box to handle up to four different decent-sized Full HD display spaces.

Though we have seen even better giant 43 inch 4K monitors in terms of overall specs and connectivity options, the P4317Q is an impressive tool indeed as far as workflow requirements go, with a total screen resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels of 4K glory that can play at a 60Hz refresh rate and a solid, rich contrast ratio of 1000:1, with a maximum brightness that sits at a stunningly luminous 350 nits.

On top of this the P4317Q offers up an 8ms response time, wide IPS panel display viewing angles of 178 degrees and multiple standard connectivity options which include HDMI 1.4, DisplayPort 1.2 and Mini DisplayPort 1.2 along with a VGA port. Furthermore, Dell has given the new P4317Q Multi-client a built-in audio capacity that’s definitely above average for a mere PC monitor, with two internal 8-watt speakers. There’s also a robust 4-port USB 3.0 hub built into the P4317Q.

Finacle partners Onegini, Samsung SDS, for mobile security and Mobile Banking

Infosys Finacle, part of EdgeVerve Systems, a product subsidiary of Infosys, and Onegini has announced a partnership to integrate the Onegini mobile security platform with Finacle banking solutions.

The integration will allow banks to provide their customers enhanced security to access and transact across channels. Using this solution, banks can offer customers an option to select advanced authentication methods, including fingerprint, facial, eye and voice recognition as well as multi-factor authentication for added security as they transact on devices. The end-user will be presented different authentication methods depending on device, location and type of transaction.

Also in a move that is seen in the industry as complimentary, Infosys Finacle has also teamed up with Samsung’s services subsidiary in a new mobile banking partnership. Samsung SDS will be providing its FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Authentication tool into the bargain, which allows banking customers to use the device of their choice and mobile application creators the ability to create device-agnostic services.

The use of FIDO, says Infosys Finacle, will also “help to advance and simplify micro payments and enable financial inclusion in developing markets where mobile devices are the dominant form of internet access.” Users of FIDO will be able to scan their fingerprints, use facial recognition technology and other forms of biometrics to complete payments and transactions.

Andy Dey, President of Customer & Operations at Infosys EdgeVerve, said, "A bank is no longer somewhere to go - you carry it with you. This offers a new level of convenience, but at the same time our customers demand secure solutions. Through this partnership, we aim to provide advanced security with convenience to customers."

According to him, “Customers are becoming far more accustomed to accessing and spending their money via mobile,” says Andy Dey, President of Customers and Operations at EdgeVerve, the parent company of Infosys Finacle.

“As such, financial services providers should be empowered with mobile solutions where they never have to choose between providing a good user experience and robust security.

EdgeVerve, he adds, wants to enable banking without passwords “wherein people can authenticate transactions by using flexible biometric options such as facial recognition and fingerprints.” The partnership with Samsung SDS and Origini are part of that vision.

Misys Solutions launches FinCloud

Misys has announced it is launching Misys FinCloud, a new range of Cloud solutions and global Cloud environment offering Misys clients the highest standards of security, performance and operating excellence in Cloud operations in the financial services industry. With this solution, clients pay for what they use as part of an initiative supported by various global and local infrastructure providers, systems integrators and solution partners.

Misys FinCloud solutions promote agility and efficiency. Clients gain faster access to innovation through shorter and more predictable on-boarding and updates. They can consume Misys solutions rather than licensing and running them themselves, freeing up their IT resources to focus on strengthening their competitive edge and growing their business. Offered on elastic, consumption-based charging models, Misys FinCloud clients pay for what they use.

Supported by selected global and local infrastructure providers, systems integrators and solution partners, the Misys FinCloud incorporates a highly secure, trusted Cloud environment, representing the highest levels of security, performance and operating excellence for Cloud operations in the financial services industry.

“The financial services industry is evolving faster than ever before and we are seeing our customers embarking on wholesale digital transformation projects,” said Tom Dawkins, Global Head of Cloud Enablement at Misys. “Cloud technology is a key enabler of this change. We are enabling all Misys solutions for the Cloud to offer our customers the choice of on-premise or Cloud deployment. And, the Misys FinCloud guarantees the highest levels of security and service delivery for our clients. Today we are launching new Cloud solutions into each of our four main lines of business - this is a first wave of Misys FinCloud solutions to be launched and we look forward to announcing more as they come on line.”

The Misys FinCloud enables financial institutions to run Misys solutions on the Cloud, with the confidence that they are being operated and managed in highly secure, audited environments. The Misys FinCloud utilises state-of-the-art virtual server technology, storage, security, disaster recovery and networking hardware that is proactively managed and monitored in line with industry best practices and contracted service levels to ensure the highest levels of availability and performance. 

“With our Misys FusionCapital Summit Cloud solution, we benefit from high performance, high availability and strong security. Misys takes care of every aspect of managing the solution so we can stay focused on our business,” says Ferrante Zilioli, CIO, Banca Akros.

Misys is working with carefully selected partners to operate the infrastructure components of the Misys FinCloud including Rackspace and NTT Communications.

“At Rackspace we specialise in providing managed hosting solutions that can be tailored to customers’ needs, backed by a customer-centric service branded Fanatical Support®, with engaged employees who provide exceptional customer support to maintain loyal customers,” said Ryan Ohls, senior manager at Rackspace. "It is this combination of service excellence and expertise we recognise in Misys, so we are excited to deliver cloud solutions to Misys clients in North America. By working with Rackspace, Misys can enable banks and financial institutions to respond quickly to real customer needs and enjoy a competitive edge in the market.”

Masaaki Moribayashi, Managing Director, NTT Communications, adds: “At NTT Communications we know that Cloud adoption is a key strategic priority for many of the region’s banks. Partnering with Misys on the Misys FinCloud marries up our highly available, secure infrastructure technology with Misys market-leading solutions and application management expertise. Together we will partner with financial institutions on their digital transformation journey towards the Cloud helping them to innovate, accelerate and succeed - all the while enjoying the highest levels of compliance and cost efficiencies.” 

Misys is committed to Cloud enablement of all of its solutions and will deliver all major products in the Cloud, so that Misys customers have the choice of consuming them as a service on the Cloud. The FinCloud provides banks with faster implementations and better access to the latest innovations. 

Misys has a proven track record of delivering highly secure and available solutions in the private Cloud for more than ten years. The company is launching new Cloud solutions in all four business areas, including retail banking, corporate banking, treasury and capital markets and investment management.

Android eat-away Java marketshare as Oracle Denies Acquiring Sun Microsystems just to Sue Google

According to Oracle, Google’s free distribution of Android has greatly damaged Oracle’s business. The database giant reportedly told a US federal court that giving Android to handset makers for free destroyed the revenue it could have made on licensing Java.

Oracle's co-chief executive Safra Catz reportedly told a San Francisco jury hearing the firm's suit against Google that this had had “a very negative impact.” Catz claimed Samsung cut its Java royalty payment from “about” $40m to $1m. She also claimed Oracle had offered Jeff Bezos’ Amazon a 97.5 per cent discount to use Java for its Paperwhite e-reader after Amazon switched from Java, which it had used on Kindle, to Android for its Fire device.

According to Catz, Oracle tried, and abandoned, development of its own phone project. She also reportedly told the jury she’d confronted Google’s general counsel Kent Walker at 2012 bat mitzvah over Android and Java licensing, and claimed Walker had told her: “Google is a really special company and the old rules don’t apply to us.”

Oracle is claiming $9bn over Google’s claimed copyright infringement of Java in a re-trial after Larry Ellison’s firm saw its initial case reach deadlock in 2012. Executive chairman of Google’s parent company Alphabet Eric Schmidt told the trial this week he believed Google was free to use Java as he’d unveiled the language as Sun Microsystems chief technology officer in 1995. The day before in her testimony, Catz denied Oracle had bought Java creator and trademark owner Sun Microsystems in 2010 simply to own Java and sue Google.

Oracle swooped after IBM demurred on picking up Sun for its hardware server and storage business, to deliver the hardware part of the full Oracle stack chief executive Larry Ellison had so long wanted, and Java. Sun was a shell of a company, having spent a decade failing to extricate itself from the dot-com crash of the 2000s and reporting nothing but losses.

Oracle swooped after IBM demurred on picking up Sun for its hardware server and storage business, to deliver the hardware part of the full Oracle stack chief executive Larry Ellison had so long wanted, and Java.

Sun was a shell of a company, having spent a decade failing to extricate itself from the dot-com crash of the 2000s and reporting nothing but losses.

Software was Sun’s only growth area: in 2009 – a year after the first handset – licensing from Java at Sun grew 28 per cent to $281m – it had grown one per cent the year before and 13 per cent in 2007. And yet that was small change for Sun, which lived on systems and server revenue of multiples of billions of dollars - despite losses.

Oracle acquired Sun in 2010 and sued Google after negotiations broke down. The jury was deadlocked in a trial in 2012. If the current jury rules against Google on fair use, then it would consider Oracle's request for $9 billion in damages.

Google has argued that Sun welcomed Google's use of Java, but Oracle plotted to sue upon acquiring the company. However, an Oracle attorney asked Catz about emails from 2009, in which former Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz described a dispute with Google over Java. "He told us that they'd been talking with Google and had been trying to get them to licence Java," said Catz, noting that Android was an unauthorised version of Java because Google did not have a licence.

Oracle proceeded to acquire Sun, Catz said, because Java was too strategically important to Oracle's products for it to be bought by a competitor.

It was Sun’s continued control over the licensing and Java trademark that led to Harmony, a clean implementation of Java at the Apache Software Foundation. Harmony was fully supported by IBM, put out at Sun's continued control of Java, and it happened to be an implementation that used a JVM called Dalvik, whose libraries were picked up initially by Google for Android.

Oracle chased ASF to try to prove a link between Dalvik and Java, but it failed to produce the necessary smoking gun.