Tag Archives: FIN

PR Newswire

InstaForex: international broker with 15 years of experience in global financial markets

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LIMASSOL, Cyprus, April 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — These days, InstaForex celebrates its 15th anniversary. Shortly after its foundation in 2007, the international broker signed a cooperation agreement with MetaQuotes Software, an industry leader in online trading software.

InstaForex is chosen by millions of traders from around the world
InstaForex is chosen by millions of traders from around the world

Since then, InstaForex has grown not just into a reliable broker providing access to all global financial markets but also a progressive fintech company. The brand has chosen innovation as its top priority.

InstaForex was one of the first brokers to introduce trust management technologies and give its clients an opportunity to copy trades of successful traders. The company also developed its own services – PAMM and ForexCopy systems.

The company continues to expand its services worldwide. Nowadays, InstaForex has representative offices all across the globe and works with traders from all over the world. Its clients have already opened more than 7 million trading accounts.

Favorable trading conditions are not the only thing that makes the broker so popular. InstaForex also provides one of the best bonus programs in the market and holds various contests and giveaways on a regular basis.

Along with public recognition, InstaForex has a high-performance rating. It has won prestigious awards and has been recognized as the best broker in Asia, Eastern Europe, and the CIS multiple times.

Being selected as the Most Active Broker in Asia by AtoZ Markets Forex Awards and the Best Affiliate Program by UK-based Global Brands Magazine are among the broker’s latest achievements.

Over the years, InstaForex has cooperated with many world-famous sports stars, including  Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjørndalen, tennis players Victoria Azarenka and Daria Kasatkina and many other athletes.

Nowadays, InstaForex brand ambassadors are three-time Olympic swimming champion Yuliya Efimova, grandmaster Viswanathan Anand, top racer Ales Loprais, as well as world Muay Thai champion Vladimir Moravcik.

The broker also cooperates with entire sports teams. Its partners are German football club Borussia Dortmund, Slovak hockey club Zvolen, and US racing team Dragon Racing.

In addition, InstaForex is the title sponsor of InstaForex Loprais Team, a well-known rally crew, which once again proves that the company strives to be the best at everything. The broker always makes every effort to meet the highest quality standards both in terms of trading conditions and customer services.

PR Newswire

Tuniu Corporation Files Its Annual Report on Form 20-F

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NANJING, China, April 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Tuniu Corporation (NASDAQ:TOUR) (“Tuniu” or the “Company”), a leading online leisure travel company in China, today announced that it filed its annual report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The annual report can be accessed on the Company´s investor relations website at http://ir.tuniu.com or the SEC´s website at www.sec.gov. The Company will provide a hard copy of its annual report containing the audited consolidated financial statements, free of charge, to its shareholders and ADS holders upon request. Requests should be directed to the Investor Relations Department at Tuniu Building, No.32 Suningdadao, Xuanwu District, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province 210042, The People´s Republic of China.

About Tuniu Corporation

Tuniu (Nasdaq:TOUR) is a leading online leisure travel company in China that offers a large selection of packaged tours, including organized and self-guided tours, as well as travel-related services for leisure travelers through its website tuniu.com and mobile platform. Tuniu covers over 420 departing cities throughout China and all popular destinations worldwide. Tuniu provides one-stop leisure travel solutions and a compelling customer experience through its online platform and offline service network, including a dedicated team of professional customer service representatives, 24/7 call centers, extensive networks of offline retail stores and self-operated local tour operators. For more information, please visit http://ir.tuniu.com.

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PR Newswire

Midea Group Reports 2021 Annual Performance: Revenue and Profit Hit Historical High

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FOSHAN, China, April 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Midea Group Co., Ltd. (000333.SZ) has published its 2021 annual report. The company’s total revenue grew 20.2% in 2021, reaching an all-time high of RMB343.4 billion.

Despite the pandemic’s numerous hurdles, including global supply chain challenges and rising costs in raw materials and shipping, Midea achieved RMB29 billion in net profit, a YoY increase of 5.5%, showing continued growth in revenue and profit.   

The past year has been a showcase of Midea’s achievements. Midea’s annual revenue and profit hit a record high. It was listed on Fortune Global 500 for its sixth consecutive years and selected by Forbes China as one of China’s top 10 industrial digital transformation companies. The World Economic Forum recognized Midea Group as a pioneer in the Fourth Industrial Revolution for the third time. In addition, four Midea factories have joined the World Economic Forum’s Global Lighthouse Network.

Last year, Midea set up an innovative and agile R&D system for product digitization, promoted “Efficiency Improvement” across its offline sales channels, leveraged digital intelligence to meet its target “Direct to Users”, achieved big data operationalization and realized improvements in internal efficiency. Empowered by its global pool of scientific talents and innovation ecosystem, Midea has been seeking breakthroughs in overseas markets with advanced technology as well as production efficiency and capacity.

Midea has revealed its plans to develop both B2B and B2C business models and increase sales in the domestic and overseas markets concurrently. The company will continue to focus on long-term investments on technology and digital transformation and accelerate the upgrade of its smart products and smart home business. At the same time, Midea will also kickstart a second growth curve by riding on its four business engines of robotics and automation, building technologies, energy management and smart travel to realize its ultimate aim of transforming Midea from a world-leading home appliance company into an innovation-driven technology group.

About Midea Group Co., Ltd.

With a vision of “bringing great innovations to life”, Midea Group has upheld its philosophy of creating a better life with technology for 54 years since its establishment. Over the past five years, Midea has invested nearly RMB45 billion in R&D. It has 35 R&D centers and 35 major production bases across the globe. Midea products and services are used by an estimated 400 million consumers in over 200 countries and regions.

PR Newswire

People Moves at Golden Gate Ventures

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Dea Sujardi takes on Senior Advisor role; Kelly Ang takes on Investor Relations responsibilities

SINGAPORE, April 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Golden Gate Ventures, one of Singapore’s first VC funds, founded by Silicon Valley natives, recently announced a series of updates to its team, as it continues to invest in its top talent.

Dea Sujardi, former Head of Indonesia, takes on the role of Senior Advisor in Indonesia. Leveraging her deep local market knowledge, she will focus her energy on bringing to the firm deep insights about the fast-changing Indonesian landscape to help the investment team stay ahead-of-the-curve, and to give founders a finger-on-the-pulse, especially for those eyeing expansion plans into Indonesia.

After two years with the firm, Andri Wardhani, Senior Associate is moving on to a new adventure and Golden Gate Ventures is very excited for her to continue to have a positive footprint in the region.

As one of the oldest established VC funds in the region, Golden Gate Ventures sees itself as a catalyst to help nurture and develop great talent for the local ecosystem.

Building on her tenure at Golden Gate Ventures, Kelly Ang, will be expanding her responsibilities under an investor relations track, with the anticipated influx of investor capital flowing into the region. With the support of the firm, Kelly is on executive education classes with University of Colorado Boulder and University of Virginia. This is part of the firm’s continued talent investment strategy that has similarly benefited Partners Angela Toy and Justin Hall.

Meanwhile, Associate Freddy Shen will be moving to a corporate venture capital role after three years with the firm to focus on later-stage investment.

About Golden Gate Ventures

Golden Gate Ventures is a VC fund in Southeast Asia (SEA) founded by Silicon Valley natives. Since 2011, Golden Gate Ventures has launched four funds and invested in over 60 companies. The firm focuses on investing in the rising consumer internet class in Southeast Asia. Breakout companies include Carousell (mobile classifieds), Appota (Vietnam mobile publishing platform), Alodokter (HealthTech), Carro (Auto Marketplace), and Xendit (Payment Processing).                

For more information, please contact:

Golden Gate Ventures

Motley Crew Consulting (for Golden Gate Ventures)  

Email: press@goldengate.vc    

michelle.tham@motleycrewconsulting.com

Website: www.goldengate.vc  

Mobile: (65) 96384209

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PR Newswire

SK TELECOM CO. LTD. FILES ITS ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 20-F

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SEOUL, South Korea, April 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — On April 28, 2022, SK Telecom Co., Ltd. filed its Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2021 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The 2021 Annual Report on Form 20-F can be viewed on www.sktelecom.com, as well as from the website of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov. Printed copies of SK Telecom’s complete audited financial statements (including footnotes) as of and for the year ended December 31, 2021 can be requested, free of charge, by written request to skt.ir@sk.com.

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PR Newswire

ACE Money Transfer and Bank Alfalah Giving Away SIX Kia Sportage Alpha

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MANCHESTER, England, April 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ –The partnership between Bank Alfalah, one of the largest commercial banks in Pakistan and ACE Money Transfer, a leading online remittance provider, is all set to reach new heights with their latest marketing campaign. Overseas Pakistanis using legal remittance channels to the country will get a chance to win one of six KIA Sportage Alpha. ACE Money Transfer and Bank Alfalah, through the launch of this campaign, remain committed to facilitating overseas Pakistanis with fast, secure and convenient remittance options.

As part of this promotional campaign, customers sending remittances between 1st April to 30th June 2022 from the UK, Europe, Switzerland, Canada, and Australia to any Bank Alfalah account or for cash pickup at any of the 790 Alfalah branches across Pakistan will be eligible to win one of six brand new KIA Sportage Alpha.

Mr Rashid Ashraf, CEO of ACE Money Transfer said, “Pakistan remains a key payout corridor for us, and we are excited to continue our partnership with Bank Alfalah. Today’s customer is always on the lookout for a solution that provides security, and convenience and saves them time. With Bank Alfalah’s vast network of branches across the country and state of the art technology, we are able to provide seamless money transfer to millions of Pakistanis living around the globe.”

“Inward remittance is one of the backbones of Pakistan and Bank Alfalah is working persistently for its continuous growth,” said Saad Ur Rahman Khan, Group Head – Corporate, Investment Banking & International Business of Bank Alfalah. “We offer innovative and convenient solutions to our customers and encourage them to remit money through legal channels. This promotional campaign will reward our valued customers for sending remittances through ACE Money Transfer.”

For details, visit: https://acemoneytransfer.com/promotion/alfalah-kia-sportage

About ACE Money Transfer

ACE Money Transfer (registered name “Aftab Currency Exchange Limited”), based out of Manchester, the UK, is a growing remittance provider. It offers impeccable online money transfer services to millions of Pakistani expatriates with an extensive network of 350,000+ locations spread across 100+ countries worldwide.

About Bank Alfalah

Bank Alfalah is among the largest private banks in Pakistan, with a network of over 790 branches in more than 200 cities across Pakistan, with an international presence in Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Bahrain, and UAE. The Bank is owned and operated by the Abu Dhabi Group.

Media Contact:
marketing@acemoneytransfer.com
+44 161 3936 999 

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb9SlXL66Wc

  

PR Newswire

POINT ZERO FORUM UNVEILS AGENDA

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ZURICH and SINGAPORE, April 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Today, the Swiss Secretariat for International Finance (SIF) and Elevandi announced the programme and speaker line-up for the inaugural Point Zero Forum, taking place on June 21-23 in Zurich, Switzerland. Point Zero Forum will serve as the starting point for engaging investors and policymakers with innovators to advance the future of financial services (FOFS).

The Forum is an exclusive invite-only, in-person gathering of select global leaders, founders and investors with the purpose of:

  • Developing new ideas to advance the FOFS – decentralised finance and Web 3.0, embedded finance, and sustainable finance.
  • Driving investment activity by bringing together leading founders with VCs, private banking clients, family offices, and PE houses.
  • Dissecting regulatory considerations related to each FOFS development by bringing together public and private sector leaders.

The Forum will be two days of in-depth plenary sessions, deep-dive private roundtables and workshops, and exclusive sessions between founders and investors focusing on two significant new market opportunities built on Web 3.0 architecture. The Forum will be graced by Heng Swee Keat (Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies) and Ueli Maurer (Switzerland’s Federal Councillor and Head of the Federal Department of Finance).

  1. The Crypto Market Opportunity: US$2.5 trillion market cap[1]: Sessions will explore the progress made by firms in building digital asset infrastructure, operating trusted digital exchanges, and unlocking the internet of value ; embedding financial services in customer interactions across sectors such as gaming and social networks.
    1. There will be spotlight discussions on:
      1. Cyber risk
      2. Financial crime,
      3. Regulatory compliance
  2. The Sustainable Finance Opportunity: $35 trillion invested[2]: Sessions will explore the challenges and the progress of market solutions to address the infrastructure and service needs of enabling ESG compliance and boosting green financing.
    1. There will be spotlight discussions on:
      1. Accessing credible and verified data from the real economy
      2. Building trusted infrastructure and regulatory compliance for data disclosure
      3. Impact

ESG and Crypto Sector Influencers Include : Urban Angehrn, CEO of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA; Sam Bankman-Fried (CEO, FTX); Stephen Bird (CEO, abrdn); Agustín Carstens (General Manager, Bank for international Settlements BIS); Umar Farooq (CEO, Onyx by JP Morgan); Doug Feagin (Senior Vice President, Global Strategic Partnerships and Investments, Ant Group); Ralph Hamers (CEO, UBS); Thomas Jordan (Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank SNB); Eric Lim, (Chief Sustainability Officer, UOB); Kris Marszalek (CEO, Crypto.com); David Marcus (Former Head of Novi and Messenger at Meta, Co-creator of Diem); Ravi Menon (MD, Monetary Authority of Singapore  (MAS)); Hiromichi Mizuno (Special Envoy of U.N. Secretary-General on Innovative Finance and Sustainable Investments); Roman Regelman (CEO, Asset Servicing and Head of Digital, BNY Mellon); Philipp Rickenbacher (Chief Executive Officer, Julius Baer); Julian Sawyer (CEO, Bitstamp); Julian Teicke (Founder and CEO, wefox); Jason Thompson (CEO, Partior); Dmitry Tokarev (Founder, Copper); Robby Yeung (CEO, Animoca Brands); Changpeng Zhao (CEO, Binance); Ben Zhou (CEO, Bybit).

Deep-dive private roundtables include:

  1. ‘Shared Responsibility: The Future of Green Financing’
    Hosted by: Milken Institute
    Facilitated by: Hiromichi Mizuno, Special Envoy of U.N. Secretary-General on Innovative Finance and Sustainable Investments and Laura Deal Lacey, Milken Institute.
  2. ‘Multilateral CBDCs’
    Hosted by: BIS Innovation Hub (BIS)
    Facilitated by: Andrew McCormack, Centre Head, BIS Innovation Hub Singapore, Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
  3. ‘Open Finance’
    Hosted by: State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF)
    Facilitated by: Nicolas Bruegger, Senior Policy Advisor at State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF)
  4. ‘Swiss Climate Scores – Introducing Best Practice Transparency on the Paris-alignment of Investments’
    Hosted by: State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF)
    Facilitated by: Christoph Baumann, Head of Taskforce on Sustainable Finance at State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF)
  5. ‘Growth stage FinTechs’
    Hosted by: Heng Swee Keat, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies
    Facilitated by: Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Economic Development Board (EDB)
  6. ‘Stablecoins’
    Hosted by: Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)
    Facilitated by: Jo Yeo, Head, Payments Development and Data Connectivity Office, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)

Speakers include:

Agustín Carstens, General Manager, Bank for international Settlements (BIS);
Ben Zhou, CEO, Bybit;
Chen Leiming, Senior Vice President, Ant Group
Changpeng Zhao, CEO, Binance
David Marcus, Former Head of Novi and Messenger at Meta, Co-creator of Diem
David Rutter, Founder and CEO, R3
Marc Bukki (CEO of Swissquote, Founder of Swissquote group)
Dmitry Tokarev, Founder, Copper;
Doug Feagin, Senior Vice President, Global Strategic Partnerships and Investments, Ant Group;
Dr. Gabriela Maria Payer, Vice-Chairwoman, Sygnum;
Dr. Iwa Salami, Reader (Associate Professor), Centre of FinTech, Department of Law & Criminology, Royal Docks School of Business and Law;
Eric Lim, Chief Sustainability Officer, UOB;
Ericson Chan, Chief Information and Digital Officer, Zurich Insurance;
Heng Swee Keat, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies;
Hiromichi Mizuno, Special Envoy of U.N. Secretary-General on Innovative Finance and Sustainable Investments;
James Smith, Founder, Elliptic;
Jason Thompson, CEO, Partior;
Jo Ann Barefoot, CEO & Co-Founder, Barefoot Innovation;
Joanne Hannaford, Chief Technology & Operations Officer and Executive Board Member, Credit Suisse;
Jos Dijsselhof, CEO, SIX Group;
Julian Sawyer, CEO, Bitstamp;
Julian Teicke, Founder and CEO, wefox;
Kris Marszalek, CEO, Crypto.com;
Manisha Tank, TV Anchor & Correspondent, CNN International;
Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President & CEO, Women’s World Banking;
Nicolas Bruegger, Senior Policy Advisor at State Secretariat for International Finance (SIF);
Oliver Bussmann, CEO & Founder of Bussmann Advisory;
Philipp Rickenbacher, Chief Executive Officer, Julius Baer;
Pinar Özcan, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Oxford University
Rahul Banerjee, Founder & CEO, Bondevalue;
Ralph Hamers, CEO, UBS;
Raphael Bianchi, President and Board Member, OpenWealth Association;
Ravi Menon, MD, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS);
Robby Yeung, CEO, Animoca Brands;
Roman Regelman, CEO of Asset Servicing and Head of Digital, BNY Mellon;
Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO, FTX;
Stefan Klestil, General Partner & Head of FinTech, SpeedInvest;
Stephen Bird, CEO, abrdn;
Teana Baker-Taylor, Chief Policy Officer for the Digital Chamber of Commerce;
Thomas Jordan, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank (SNB);
Ueli Maurer, Switzerland’s Federal Councillor and Head of the Federal Department of Finance;
Umar Farooq, CEO, Onyx by JP Morgan

4. The full agenda can be found here.

Fringe Activities: Brand-New Investor Day and Innovation Open Houses

On the first day of the Forum (June 21st), investors are invited to a closed-door session hosted by SIF and MAS. The session will serve as a precedent to the Forum, where investors will be able to gain a perspective on the global market trends and business opportunities that are shaping the FinTech scene, and how these topics will be addressed on the agenda during the main stage.

Also happening on the June 21st are open houses hosted by BIS Innovation Hub, Crypto Valley Labs, ETH Zurich, F10, University of Zurich and ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences. Registrations for these events are now open on the website.

Point Zero Forum is an invitation-only forum for investors, influencers, thinkers and decision-makers from government and regulators, financial institutions, technology companies, crypto and blockchain networks, and academia. The Forum is organised in cooperation with the BIS Innovation Hub, MAS, and SNB, and supported by Knowledge Partners including Bussmann Advisory, Ecosystm, Finance.Swiss, Milken Institute, Open Wealth Association and Switzerland Global Enterprise. To request an invite, visit www.pointzeroforum.com. 

State Secretariat for International Finance

The State Secretariat for International Finance represents Switzerland’s interests in financial, monetary and tax matters not only vis-à-vis partner countries but also in the competent international bodies. It is committed to good framework conditions to ensure that Switzerland can have an innovative, interconnected and sustainable financial centre and business location that is among the world leaders. The State Secretariat is responsible for implementing the financial market policy of the Swiss Government.

Elevandi

Elevandi is set up by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to foster an open dialogue between the public and private sectors to advance FinTech in the digital economy. We work closely with governments, founders, investors, and corporate leaders to drive collaboration, education, and new sources of value at the industry and national levels. Our initiatives have convened over 300,000 people since 2016 to drive the growth of FinTech through events, closed-door roundtables, investor programmes, educational initiatives, and research. Our flagship product is the Singapore FinTech Festival alongside fast-rising platforms, including the World FinTech Festival and Point Zero Forum.

PR Newswire

Huobi Tech establishes Huobi Tech Capital to capture opportunities in Web3.0, DeFi, and Metaverse

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HONG KONG, April 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Huobi Technology Holdings Limited (Huobi Tech; Stock Code: 1611.HK) today announced the launch of Huobi Tech Capital, its strategic investment and M&A unit. The latter will explore investment opportunities in the blockchain industry by looking into areas such as Web3, DeFi and the Metaverse.

Huobi Tech Capital will focus on early-stage investments that ride on industry trends, as well as strategic acquisitions that strengthen Huobi Tech’s blockchain ecosystem. It will adopt flexible investment strategies, including traditional equity investment and token investment in the crypto world. 

Huobi Tech Capital has already made strong progress with investments in GameFi, and recently finished investing in a project of digital assets service platform serving family offices. Blockchain is not just a technology that offers cost efficiencies, but also acts as a social tool to build relationships and trust. Through its investments in these leading start-ups, Huobi Tech strives to support core technological developments in the blockchain industry.

About Huobi Tech Holdings Limited
Huobi Technology Holdings Limited (“Huobi Tech”, Stock Code: 1611.HK) was listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited in November 2016. Actively developing the blockchain ecosystem and virtual asset ecosystem, Huobi Tech is committed to becoming the leading one-stop compliant virtual asset service platform. Huobi Tech currently offers data centre services, cloud-based services, SaaS, virtual asset management, custody, trust & custody, OTC brokerage, lending, trading platform and other related services.

At the same time, Huobi Tech is applying for virtual asset and finance-related licenses in major markets around the world. Up to now, Huobi Tech’s subsidiaries have successfully obtained the approval to conduct Type 4 (Advising on Securities) and Type 9 (Asset Management) regulated activities from the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong, registered as a Trust Company in Hong Kong with the Trust or Company Service Provider License (Hong Kong) and the Retail Trust Company License (Nevada USA).

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PR Newswire

IBM study finds Singaporeans are victims of financial fraud at a higher rate than most countries

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  • IBM also announces IBM z16, the next-generation system, bringing industry-first real-time AI to transaction processing at scale to help prevent fraud in real-time, a challenge that costs Singaporeans an average of S$1,648 in the past 12 months due to fraudulent financial charges
  • IBM z16 is the industry’s first quantum-safe system. Building on IBM’s history of security leadership, IBM z16 also is specifically designed to help protect against near-future threats that might be used to crack today’s encryption technologies.

SINGAPORE, April 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — According to a new report by IBM (NYSE: IBM), geographies and generations differ greatly in the frequency and impact of financial fraud, as well as their attitudes toward fraud detection and the institutions responsible for protecting them from bad actors.

IBM z16, the next generation system designed to help prevent fraud in real-time, a challenge that cost the financial industry $32B in card losses in 2021.
IBM z16, the next generation system designed to help prevent fraud in real-time, a challenge that cost the financial industry $32B in card losses in 2021.

The 2022 IBM Global Financial Fraud Impact Report also found that as global consumers have moved nearly exclusively to credit card and digital payments, Singaporeans have been victimized more regularly than all other countries surveyed in the report, costing Singapore consumers an average of S$1,648.52 per year in fraudulent financial charges made by unauthorized third parties.

“Financial fraud and cyber threats are a growing menace to global banks and financial institutions, increasing the need for companies to improve and accelerate preventative methods to stay one step ahead of sophisticated criminal activity,” said Shanker Ramamurthy, Managing Partner, Global Banking & Financial Markets, IBM. “And while the global economy’s evolution toward a cashless society took a huge leap during the pandemic, at the same time, the risk of financial fraud has also grown at an unprecedented rate.”

“The financial sector is constantly under cyberattack globally and Singapore is not spared. The industry is among the most vulnerable to financial fraud and cyber threats because of the vast amount of money and valuable data that banks, and investment firms process each day. The Singapore government is working on a comprehensive approach, working with each party in the ecosystem, to counter the threats. As for financial institutions, they must continue to protect their data and systems against current and future threats – as criminals continue to up their game. It is important to ensure that Singaporeans feel confident, safe, and secure in using financial services,” said Neha Arora, Managing Director, Banking and Financial Markets, IBM.

Global Financial Impact

When it comes to fraud on a global scale, Singaporeans have generally experienced more types of fraud than other countries. Of the countries surveyed, Singapore ranks second in percentage of respondents who have experienced fraud across several categories: credit card fraud, debit card fraud, digital payment fraud (through apps such as Venmo, Zelle and PayPal), digital wallet fraud (such as Apple Pay and Google Pay), and tax fraud. In fact, Singapore ranked second in every category measuring types of financial fraud – with the exception of banking fraud (experiencing financial security issues with their banking institutions), in which it ranked first.

Nearly two out of five Singaporean respondents (39%) are not confident in their bank or credit card’s ability to handle fraudulent charges. Similarly, one-third (33%) are not confident in their financial institution’s ability to detect suspicious activity in their accounts, while more than one-third (35%) of Singaporean respondents are not confident in their bank’s ability to prevent fraud.

Respondents said they believe that banks and payment networks should be most responsible for preventing fraud. But running deep-learning models at scale in real-time has not been possible due to latency issues, meaning a significant amount of fraud is going undetected.

To help address this challenge, IBM today unveiled IBM z16™, IBM’s next-generation system with industry-first breakthroughs, including deep-learning inferencing — in real-time and at scale — for mission-critical workloads such as credit card, healthcare and financial transactions.

IBM z16 uniquely brings together AI inferencing, via its IBM Telum Processor, with the highly secured and reliable high-volume transaction processing IBM is known for. For the first time, banks can analyze for fraud during transactions on a massive scale: IBM z16 can process 300 billion inference operations per day with just one millisecond of latency.

By identifying fraud at the time of a transaction, consumers would no longer need to deal with confirmation emails or texts, or worse, having their card frozen and attempting to recover lost funds. For both merchants and card issuers, this can lead to revenue loss as consumers get frustrated with false declines and turn to other cards for future transactions. 

Other threats including tax fraud and organized retail theft are emerging as challenges for governments and businesses to control. Real-time payments and alternative payment methods are pushing the limits on traditional fraud detection techniques. Applying the new capabilities of IBM z16 to other industries is creating an entirely new class of use cases, including: 

  • Loan approval: Safe, fast approval of business or consumer loans in seconds vs hours or days
  • Clearing and settlement: leveraging AI to determine which trades and/or transactions have a high-risk exposure before settlement
  • Federated learning for retail: to better model risk against fraud and theft

In a hybrid cloud environment inclusive of on-premises and public cloud resources, it is critical to protect against today’s threats and posture against cybercriminals who may be stealing data now for decryption later. Building on IBM technologies like Pervasive Encryption and Confidential Computing, IBM z16 takes cyber resiliency a leap further by protecting data against future threats that could evolve with advances in quantum computing.

As the industry’s first quantum-safe system, IBM z16 is underpinned by lattice-based cryptography, an approach for constructing security primitives certified by NIST that helps protect data and systems against current and future threats. With IBM z16 quantum-safe cryptography, businesses can future-ready their applications and data today. IBM z16’s quantum-safe secure boot and cryptography can help clients get ahead of future quantum-computing related threats including harvest now, decrypt later attacks leading to extortion, loss of intellectual property and disclosure of other sensitive data.

About the 2022 IBM Global Financial Fraud Impact Report

IBM commissioned the study to maintain its understanding of present-day challenges that consumers are facing when it comes to financial fraud, as well as the ability of global financial institutions to retain control of their mission critical infrastructure to provide secure payment transactions in real-time. The study was commissioned by IBM and conducted by Morning Consult; a third-party market research firm based in the United States. The study was conducted among 1000 adults in six countries: the US, China, Singapore, Brazil, Japan, and Germany. The full report can be downloaded here.

Media contact

Seri Rahayu

External Communications

IBM ASEANZK – Singapore & Vietnam

seri.rahayu@ibm.com 

+60122106907 (Mobile)

Selvi R

Communications Leader 

IBM ASEANZK & Singapore

selvir@sg.ibm.com 

+65 9795 4165 (Mobile)
PR Newswire

Zhihu Inc. Launches Global Offering

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BEIJING, April 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Zhihu Inc. (NYSE: ZH) (“Zhihu” or the “Company”), the operator of Zhihu, a leading online content community in China, today announced the launch of its global offering (the “Global Offering”) of 26,000,000 Class A ordinary shares of the Company, which comprises a Hong Kong public offering of initially 2,600,000 Class A ordinary shares commencing on April 11, 2022, Hong Kong time (the “Hong Kong Public Offering”) and an international offering of initially 23,400,000 Class A ordinary shares commencing today (the “International Offering”), and dual-primary listing (the “Hong Kong Listing”) of its Class A ordinary shares on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the “Hong Kong Stock Exchange”) under the stock code “2390.”

The Company’s American depositary shares (the “ADSs”), two of which represent one Class A ordinary share of the Company, will continue to be listed and traded on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”). Investors in the Global Offering will only be able to purchase Class A ordinary shares and will not be able to take delivery of ADSs. Upon the Hong Kong Listing, the Class A ordinary shares listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will be fully fungible with the ADSs listed on the NYSE.

The initial number of Class A ordinary shares under the Hong Kong Public Offering and the International Offering represent 10% and 90% of the total number of Class A ordinary shares initially available under the Global Offering, respectively, subject to reallocation and over-allotment. Subject to the level of oversubscription in the Hong Kong Public Offering and pursuant to the claw back mechanism, as described in the Hong Kong prospectus to be issued by the Company in Hong Kong dated April 11, 2022, the total number of Class A ordinary shares available under the Hong Kong Public Offering could be adjusted to up to a maximum of 13,000,000 Class A ordinary shares, representing 50% of the Class A ordinary shares initially available under the Global Offering. In addition, certain selling shareholders expect to grant the international underwriters an over-allotment option to require these selling shareholders to sell up to an additional 3,900,000 Class A ordinary shares in the International Offering, representing no more than 15% of the total number of Class A ordinary shares initially available under the Global Offering.

The offer price for the Hong Kong Public Offering (the “Hong Kong Offer Price”) will be no more than HK$51.80 per Class A ordinary share (the “Maximum Hong Kong Offer Price”), or US$6.64 per Class A ordinary share (equivalent to US$3.32 per ADS). The offer price for the International Offering tranche of the Global Offering (the “International Offer Price”) may be set higher than, or the same as, the Maximum Hong Kong Offer Price. The International Offer Price will be set on or about April 14, 2022, Hong Kong time, by taking into consideration, among other factors, the closing price of the ADSs on the NYSE on the last trading day on or before April 14, 2022 and investor demand during the marketing process. The final Hong Kong Offer Price will be set at the lower of the final International Offer Price and the Maximum Hong Kong Offer Price of HK$51.80 per Class A ordinary share. The shares will be traded in board lots of 100 Class A ordinary shares.

The entire shares of the Global Offering are comprised of sale shares to be sold by certain selling shareholders. The Company will not receive any of the net proceeds from the Global Offering. The selling shareholders will receive all the net proceeds of the Global Offering.

Credit Suisse (Hong Kong) Limited, J.P. Morgan Securities (Far East) Limited, China International Capital Corporation Hong Kong Securities Limited, and CMB International Capital Limited are the joint sponsors for the proposed Global Offering. Credit Suisse (Hong Kong) Limited, J.P. Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Limited, China International Capital Corporation Hong Kong Securities Limited, and CMB International Capital Limited are the joint global coordinators for the proposed Global Offering. Credit Suisse (Hong Kong) Limited, J.P. Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Limited, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC (in relation to the International Offering only), China International Capital Corporation Hong Kong Securities Limited, CMB International Capital Limited, CCB International Capital Limited, and Haitong International Securities Company Limited are the joint bookrunners and joint lead managers for the proposed Global Offering.

The International Offering is being made only by means of a preliminary prospectus supplement dated April 8, 2022 and the accompanying prospectus included in an automatic shelf registration statement on Form F-3 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on April 8, 2022, which automatically became effective upon filing. The shelf registration statement on Form F-3 and the preliminary prospectus supplement are available at the SEC website at: http://www.sec.gov.

The proposed Global Offering is subject to market and other conditions, and there can be no assurance as to whether or when the Global Offering may be completed, or as to the actual size or terms of the Global Offering. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer or an invitation to buy any securities of the Company, nor shall there be any offer or sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or other jurisdiction. This press release does not constitute a prospectus (including as defined under the laws of Hong Kong) and potential investors should read the prospectus of the Company for detailed information about the Company and the proposed Global Offering, before deciding whether or not to invest in the Company. This press release has not been reviewed or approved by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange or the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong.

The price of the Class A ordinary shares of the Company may be stabilized in accordance with the Securities and Futures (Price Stabilizing) Rules (Chapter 571W of the Laws of Hong Kong). The details of the intended stabilization and how it will be regulated under the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Chapter 571 of the Laws of Hong Kong) will be contained in the Hong Kong prospectus of the Company to be dated April 11, 2022.

About Zhihu Inc.

Zhihu Inc. (NYSE: ZH) is the operator of Zhihu, a leading online content community in China, dedicated to empowering people to share knowledge, experience, and insights, and to find their own answers. Zhihu fosters a vibrant online community where users contribute and engage while respecting diversity and valuing constructiveness by promoting a culture of sincerity, expertise, and respect developed through years of cultivation. Zhihu is China’s largest Q&A-inspired online community and one of the top five Chinese comprehensive online content communities, both in terms of average mobile monthly average users and revenue in 2021. For more information, please visit https://ir.zhihu.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the Company’s beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, and a number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by words or phrases such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “target,” “aim,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “future,” “potential,” “continue,” “is/are likely to,” or other similar expressions. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties, or factors is included in the Company’s filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release and is based on assumptions that the Company believes to be reasonable as of this date, and the Company does not undertake any duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

For investor and media inquiries, please contact:

In China:
Zhihu Inc.
Email: ir@zhihu.com

The Piacente Group, Inc.
Helen Wu
Tel: +86 (10) 6508-0677
Email: zhihu@tpg-ir.com

In the United States:
The Piacente Group, Inc.
Brandi Piacente
Tel: +1 (212) 481-2050
Email: zhihu@tpg-ir.com

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Source: Zhihu Inc.