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mariacallous · 1 month ago

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In mid-September, Russians at War, a documentary by the Russian Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova, was supposed to be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. At the last minute, after protests from the Ukrainian community and the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the festival first pulled the picture, only to return it to the program a week later.

What made the documentary so controversial was that, although many films have chronicled the devastation caused by Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, including the Oscar-winning 20 Days in Mariupol, Trofimova’s work focused on the invaders. The filmmaker, embedded with a Russian unit for seven months, humanized Moscow’s troops as lost, confused, and disheveled. The men joke, miss their families, and even criticize the Russian government, though they never speak against Putin. A love-on-the-front-lines plot trains the viewer’s sympathy on the soldiers, even while the film avoids any reference to atrocities committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.

So is Russians at War a propaganda film, as its Ukrainian critics argue? Financed in part by the Canada Media Fund and produced in partnership with Ontario’s public broadcaster TVO, Russians at War avoids the trope of “Russian savior liberates ancestral lands from NATO invaders” that is typical of Kremlin propaganda. But all of Trofimova’s previous documentaries, filmed in Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Iraq, were made for RT—the Kremlin’s global propaganda network. In an interview with Deadline, Trofimova claimed that she embedded with a Russian unit without any military authorization, and just “stuck around.” In a country where a Wall Street Journal reporter gets sentenced to 16 years for merely handling a piece of paper, an independent filmmaker roaming the front lines, filming military installations, and interviewing soldiers without facing repercussions raises questions. Trofimova did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

One thing that the confused response to Russians at War makes clear is that eight years after the revelation that Moscow attempted to influence a U.S. presidential election, most Westerners still don’t really know how Russian propaganda campaigns work. Americans have become familiar with AI botnets, salaried trolls tweeting in broken English about Texas secession, deranged Russian TV hosts calling for a nuclear strike on New York, and alt-right has-beens. But what to make of a French and Canadian documentary, tucked between Pharrell’s Lego-animated film and a Q&A with Zoe Saldaña, that seems cozy with the Russian military and blurs the line between entertainment and politics?

Here is a clue: The Kremlin’s information war in the West is reminiscent of the one it fought—and won—on the home front. I know this because I was in that earlier war, and, regrettably, I fought on the wrong side.

I began working for Kremlin-linked media during my junior year in college. At the time, the Russian government was apparently hoping that by leveraging high energy prices, it could regain a bit of the influence it had lost after the Cold War. The state called this being an “energy superpower.” In practice, high oil and gas prices abroad translated into more Michelin chefs, German cars, and Italian suits for the select few at home.

In 2005, a close friend introduced me to Konstantin Rykov, known as the godfather of the Russian internet and, later, the man who revolutionized digital propaganda in Russia. In 1998, he launched a website called fuck.ru, which included a provocative magazine and mixed Moscow nightlife, humor, and art. With a blend of pop culture and media savvy, Rykov built an empire of news websites, tabloids, and even online games.

Rykov’s latest endeavor at the time of our meeting was The Bourgeois Journal, a glossy luxury-lifestyle magazine aimed at Russia’s affluent class. He hired me to head up the St. Petersburg bureau, not because of my background in student journalism, but in large part because I grew up in Boston, meaning that I was fluent in English and, apparently, the ways of the West. During my interview (a sushi-and-vodka breakfast), the word Kremlin never came up.

Rykov made the Journal available, for free, only at the most exclusive restaurants, gyms, private clinics, and five-star hotels. Inside, between ads for Richard Mille watches and prime London real estate, were interviews with figures such as Vladimir Medinsky and Alexander Dugin—now the ideologues behind Russia’s war in Ukraine. In a single issue, you could read a review of a restaurant located in a 15th-century building in Maastricht, an essay about the West’s fear of a strong Russia, and a report from Art Basel. The Bourgeois Journal used luxury to mask propaganda aimed at Russia’s elite.

Like many people working in Russian propaganda at the time, I didn’t agree with the narrative that my publication was spreading. And, as most people in propaganda will tell you, I was simply doing my job. I was there a little over a year—selling ads, reviewing restaurants, and occasionally interviewing a Western celebrity. The tedious essays on Russia’s place in the world were outweighed by the benefits of running a magazine for the rich: private palaces, private parties, and escapes to the Caribbean sun—something that the birthplace of Dostoyevsky had little of.

After the success of The Bourgeois Journal, Rykov launched Russia.ru, the country’s first online television network, in 2007. Here, pro-Kremlin news ran alongside obscene reality shows, attracting nearly 2.5 million viewers a month. The network’s slogan, “Glory to Russia”—now a battle cry in Russia’s war in Ukraine—demonstrated just how seamlessly Rykov blended patriotism with entertainment to reach an enormous audience.

Building on this, Rykov introduced ZaPutina (“For Putin”), a movement designed to help Vladimir Putin secure an unconstitutional third term. The project included an online platform that aggregated news from various sources, including original reporting from its own correspondents; a ZaPutina campaign bus to take Kremlin-loyal bloggers across the country; and attractive women—proto-influencers—who attended press conferences, introducing themselves by name and their outlet (“For Putin”) before asking their questions.

My biggest contribution to Russian propaganda came in 2009. By then, Russia was positioning itself as an inventive, Western-oriented economy. Vladislav Surkov—an adman, a poet, a columnist, and a Kremlin ideologue—dubbed this period one of “managed democracy,” which will likely be remembered as the midpoint between Russia’s post-Soviet anarchy and its modern-day fascism. Political parties were numerous, but all controlled from the Kremlin, as was almost every form of media. Yet the country sought a veneer of freedom. That’s where Honest Monday came in—a prime-time talk show that I co-created, wrote, and co-produced.

Our remit was to reach the sorts of viewers who ignored the in-your-face messaging of broadcast talk shows. Each week, the Kremlin assigned these shows a topic it wanted highlighted, and most would comply in a very blunt fashion: Do this, vote for that, Russia’s great. With a young host and a flashy studio modeled on French TV, Honest Monday took a different approach. Every week, I wrote up a summary of the left, center, and right perspectives on the topic we were given; I also delineated a viewpoint that reflected the Kremlin’s stance on the matter and sketched a justification for why this view was better than the other three. The producers would then scour the country for guests whose views reflected each of the three perspectives. The three speakers—politicians, celebrities, or pundits—had to defend their stance to, say, a factory worker we flew in from Siberia whose experience was relevant to the topic we covered. The debates were real, many of them heated, and with views contradicting the Kremlin’s. Still, the house always won.

Toward the end of our first season, the ratings for Honest Monday dipped, and the Kremlin’s tolerance waned. The network introduced a new director. As I recall, he outlined for us his vision of the show’s future: “When the viewers tune in, the first thing they should do is shit themselves.”

The Kremlin instructed us to take aim at the powerless Russian opposition, and in a matter of weeks, the messaging turned into outright bashing of everything that stood against Putin. I resigned—publicly—by sanctimoniously calling the show’s producers and host “Kremlin shills.” A couple of years later, two people connected with the Russian propaganda machine lured me outside and assaulted me in broad daylight (one of them later tweeted that he was motivated by a personal issue rather than a political one). When I hit the ground, half a mile from the Kremlin, I was finally out of the game.

Perhaps Rykov’s greatest contribution to Russian propaganda remains his cadre of media managers and propagandists, who now grace Kremlin corridors (and U.S. Treasury sanctions lists). One such protégé was Vladimir Tabak. Formerly a producer at Russia.ru, he rose to prominence in 2010, when he organized a now-infamous birthday calendar for Putin, featuring 12 female students posing in lingerie and captioned with quotes like “I love you,” “Who else but you?,” and “You’re only better with age.” The calendar, designed to create buzz and cultivate Putin’s image, dominated the news cycle for weeks. In an interview with the model Naomi Campbell, Putin even commented on how much he liked it. Legend has it that Surkov personally approved the project.

Although Tabak’s initial endeavor may have seemed playful, his later efforts illustrate just how insidious his propaganda techniques have become. Since 2020, Tabak has led Dialog, a powerful, Kremlin-affiliated organization tasked with controlling and shaping all social-media narratives in the country. If someone uses social media to criticize, say, the mayor of a small town, Dialog knows about it. According to a joint investigation by the independent Russian outlets Meduza, The Bell, and iStories, the organization took on a significant role during the coronavirus pandemic, virtually monopolizing the flow of COVID-related information in Russia by launching the website Stopkoronavirus.rf as the primary source for daily pandemic updates (the investigation report notes that Dialog denies being associated with this site).

At the height of the pandemic, the Kremlin decided to hold a vote on constitutional amendments that would allow Putin to serve two more terms, and Dialog immediately shifted to encouraging people to go to the polls, downplaying COVID-19 concerns. Later, after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Dialog was reportedly tasked with spreading fake news about the war not just in Russia, but in Ukraine. Some of the narratives included Ukrainian soldiers selling their awards on eBay, high-ranking Ukrainian officials owning expensive property in the European Union, and Kyiv ordering the mobilization of women.

Tabak’s organization has become a key player in Russia’s digital warfare abroad, including in its most recent campaign targeting Western audiences. On September 4, the U.S. Justice Department seized numerous internet domains allegedly involved in Russia’s Doppelganger campaign—an influence operation designed to undermine international support for Ukraine and bolster pro-Russian interests. The domains, many of them made to resemble legitimate news outlets, were linked to Russian companies, including Dialog. According to an unsealed affidavit, the goal of the operation was to spread covert Russian propaganda, manipulate voter sentiment, and influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

Doppelganger appears to be a sophisticated operation that used deepfakes, AI, and cybersquatting (registering domains designed to mimic legitimate websites). But the Kremlin’s real innovations were those it employed in Russia in the 1990s; in the West today, it is simply repeating the same playbook using new technology. Washingtonpost.pm, a fake news website created to spread Russian propaganda, was an evolution of the fake newspapers that circulated in Russia during the ’90s ahead of elections. The purpose of those outlets—made to resemble legitimate media but filled with kompromat, gossip, and propaganda—was to get the right people elected.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian propaganda has churned out absurd and repulsive lies, such as that Ukraine has biolabs where NATO scientists are working on a virus that targets Slavic DNA, and that Zelensky, who is Jewish, presides over a neo-Nazi regime. Yet, in a way, it has become honest with itself—at least for the domestic audience. There’s no longer a need for platforms like Russia.ru or The Journal, because the message is clear: This is who we are, and you’re either with us or against us. And yet, the entertainment aspect didn’t disappear. Rather, it was absorbed into the propaganda machine through the Institute for Internet Development.

Founded in 2015 with Kremlin backing, and currently under the direction of the former Journal producer Alexey Goreslavsky, the IID helps direct state funds toward producing everything from box-office releases to YouTube videos, blogs, and video games. With a yearly budget of more than $200 million, it dwarfs any private film studio or streaming platform in Russia.

Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the institute has become the go-to hub for content. Initially, its output was dull and overtly propagandistic, but that has changed. Its catalog now includes 20/22, a TV series about a soldier fighting in Ukraine and his anti-war girlfriend, as well as A Thug’s Word, a 1980s period piece about a street gang, which became the No. 1 show in Russia and surprisingly popular in Ukraine—much to the dismay of the Ukrainian government. A Thug’s Word contains no politics, no war, and no Putin, yet IID—a propaganda organization—considers it its greatest success, because it legitimized the institute in the world of popular entertainment, which it fought so hard to break into.

One reason Russian propaganda is running circles around the West is that the internet was one of the few domains where the Russian state arrived late, forcing it to co-opt those who understood it. RuNet, the Russian segment of the World Wide Web, was created—and run—by people like Rykov: artsy 20-somethings, filled with cynicism, post-Soviet disillusionment, and a cyberpunk mentality. The collapse of the Soviet Union taught them that truth was whatever they wanted it to be, and that survival was the ultimate goal. The advertising executives, philosophy students, and creatives who once made video art, lewd calendars, and scandalous zines are the same minds who in 2016 said, “Let’s make memes about Hillary Clinton,” and in 2024 suggested using AI to flood X with believable comments. In many ways, this confrontation mirrors what’s happening in Ukraine: This time, however, the West is the massive, unwieldy force being outsmarted by a smaller, more tech-savvy adversary.

The good news is that the Kremlin is a graveyard of talent. In time, every gifted person I knew who went behind its brick walls was devoured by deceit, paranoia, and fear of losing one’s place in the sun. Konstantin Rykov was exceptional at his job, so much so that the Kremlin offered him a seat in the Russian Parliament when he was just 28. He accepted the offer. But being a member of the Duma Committee on Science and High Technologies and the Committee for Support in the Field of Electronic Media wasn’t the same as being the editor of fuck.ru. Despite being involved in some foreign influence operations, Rykov, now 45, hasn’t produced any significant work for Russian audiences since he joined Parliament.

Asked by an audience member in Toronto whether Russia was responsible for the war in Ukraine, Trofimova replied, “I think there are a lot of other factors involved. Yeah, like they are definitely sending troops in to solve whatever grievances there are.” Even if it wasn’t financed by Moscow, Russians at War reminds me of a Rykov production: slick, scandalous, and with a ton of free press. The message the film conveys is that war, not the country that started it, is bad in this scenario. Trofimova seems to portray Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the astonishing scale of the atrocities it has committed there, as something impersonal and inexorable, like a tsunami: We can only accept it and sympathize with the victims, including Russian soldiers.

I stopped working for the Kremlin long before the Russo-Ukrainian war, and whatever I did as the head of a magazine bureau and as a talk-show producer pales in comparison with what some of my former colleagues are doing today. Still, I know that in every bullet flying toward Ukraine—the country where my parents were born—there’s a small part of me. I wonder if Trofimova sees that she’s part of it, too.

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mostlysignssomeportents · 2 years ago

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Tax prep services send sensitive financial info with Facebook

If you were unfortunate enough to e-file your US tax using HR Block, Taxact or Taxslayer, your most sensitive financial information was nonconsenually shared with Facebook, where it was added to the involuntary dossier the company maintains billions of people, including people who don’t have Facebook accounts.

A blockbuster investigative report from The Markup and The Verge reveals that major tax-prep services illegally embedded the Facebook tracking pixel in their sites, configured so that it transmitted as much data as possible to the surveillance giant.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/22/23471842/facebook-hr-block-taxact-taxslayer-info-sharing

In their defense, the companies say that they didn’t know that they were sending all this data to Facebook, and that they were using Facebook’s surveillance pixel to “deliver a more personalized customer experience.”

The companies had set the Facebook tracking pixel to use “automatic advanced matching,” which scours any page it’s embedded in for personally identifying information to harvest and transmit to Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/business/help/611774685654668?id=1205376682832142

Facebook claims that it doesn’t want this data and won’t use it, though the company has been previously caught violating fair finance laws by using finance data to discriminate against Black families:

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/21/doj-settles-with-facebook-over-allegedly-discriminatory-housing-ads.html

But it’s possible that Facebook isn’t using this data — or that it doesn’t know whether it’s using this data. Facebook’s own internal audits show that the company doesn’t know what data it collects or how it uses it:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/akvmke/facebook-doesnt-know-what-it-does-with-your-data-or-where-it-goes

Remember, Facebook claims that it collects your data based on your consent; somehow it thinks that you can consent to collecting and using your data in ways that even Facebook can’t describe.

As infuriating as Facebook’s role in this data theft is, the real scandal is that Americans have to pay for tax preparation at all. In most of the world’s wealthy countries, the tax authorities send taxpayers a precompleted tax-return every year. You can modify this return (on your own or with the help of a tax-prep professional), or you can just mail it back. For free.

This makes sense. The tax authorities already know how much you’ve made. They know what deductions you’re entitled to. It is surreal that you have to pay a professional to fill in a form to tell the IRS a bunch of things it already know about you.

Every attempt to bring free tax prep to America has been scuttled by an unholy alliance of anti-tax extremists like Grover Nordquist (a sadist who wants to make paying your tax as cumbersome and painful as possible) and the multi-billion-dollar, highly concentrated tax-prep industry.

Companies like HR Block and Intuit have spent millions lobbying against free tax prep. It’s money well spent, because tax prep makes billions for these companies. The biggest tax prep companies formed something called “the Free File Alliance” that purported to offer free tax-prep to low- and medium-income Americans.

In practice, “free filing” turned out to be a marketing funnel that tricked people into paying for services they were entitled to get for free. Intuit alone stole billions this way:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/24/uber-for-arbitration/#nibbled-to-death-by-ducks

The monopolists who run America’s tax-prep services claim that “government can’t do anything well” and insist that the private sector will bring “efficiencies” to tax-prep. In reality, these companies literally have no idea what they’re doing — they don’t know what data they’re collecting, nor who they’re sharing it with.

Same goes for Facebook. Companies that are not disciplined by competition or regulation don’t have to be good at their jobs. These companies’ major competence is lobbying Congress to prevent the passage of meaningful privacy laws and laws that would save Americans billions through IRS-prepared tax-returns.

As Harvard tax-law prof Mandi Matlock told Simon Fondrie-Teitler, Angie Waller, and Colin Lecher, this data Valdez is the “almost inevitable consequence of relying on for-profit companies to handle a government requirement. It’s a process that provides users little choice but to hand over their data to Facebook if they want to comply with the law.”

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

Social Woodlands (modified) https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:H%26R_Block_%285424899168%29.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

[Image ID: An H&R Block storefront; the 'o' in Block has been replaced with the glaring red eye of HAL9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse avatar peeks out from behind a pillar.]

#pluralistic

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mightyflamethrower · 3 months ago

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(America First Report)—Iran appears to be on the verge of attacking Israel directly. This will be the second time they have attacked this year following a series of drone and missile strikes on April 13. Rumors of war percolate as both sides have vowed to escalate beyond a single-day skirmish.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III communicated with his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, to reaffirm U.S. backing for Israel as tensions escalate with Iran and its proxies, raising the specter of a broader regional conflict following ten months of fighting against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

During their conversation, Austin and Gallant discussed U.S. military positioning adjustments aimed at reinforcing defenses for U.S. troops in the region, supporting Israel’s defense, and deterring and defusing broader regional tensions, as per a statement from the Pentagon.

This discussion took place as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed a Cabinet meeting that Israel is already engaged in a “multi-front war” with Iran and its proxies.

Tensions in the region have reached unprecedented levels following the recent killing of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran. Both Iran and its allies have pointed fingers at Israel and threatened retaliation. Hamas has begun the process of selecting a new leader.

Netanyahu stated that Israel is prepared for any scenario. In a rare move, Jordan’s foreign minister traveled to Iran as part of diplomatic efforts, with the aim to quell the escalation.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly informed his counterparts on Sunday that Iran and Hezbollah might launch attacks against Israel as early as Monday, according to Axios.

Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, head of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), is expected to arrive in Israel on Monday to coordinate preparations for the anticipated attack, according to the Times of Israel.

President Biden is also set to convene with his national security team in the situation room on Monday to discuss the Middle East situation, as reported by Reuters.

In Israel, some have prepared bomb shelters, recalling Iran’s unprecedented direct military assault in April following a suspected Israeli strike that killed two Iranian generals. Israel claimed that nearly all the drones and ballistic and cruise missiles were intercepted.

“For years, Iran has been arming and financing terrorist organizations across the Middle East, including smuggling explosives into Israeli territory for terror attacks against civilians,” IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagar said in a statement. ��The IDF and ISA have already thwarted numerous attacks in which Claymore type explosives were smuggled into the country’s territory. We are determined to continue acting against Iranian terrorism wherever it may be.”

The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and the abduction of around 250 individuals. Israel’s ongoing counteroffensive has been brutal as they seek to completely eliminate Hamas, which has embedded itself among citizens of Gaza, using them as human shields.

The militant group Hezbollah and Israel have continued to exchange fire along the Lebanon border since the war began, with the intensity increasing in recent months. Hezbollah stated that its actions are intended to alleviate pressure on fellow Iran-backed ally Hamas.

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xettle-technologies · 6 months ago

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The impact of sustainability in fintech: reflections from the summit

In recent years, the Fintech industry has witnessed a paradigm shift towards sustainability, with an increasing emphasis on integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into financial decision-making processes. This transformative trend took center stage at the latest Fintech Summit, where industry leaders converged to explore the intersection of sustainability and financial technology. Among the prominent voices shaping this discourse was Xettle Technologies, a trailblazer in Fintech software solutions, whose commitment to sustainability is driving innovation and reshaping the future of finance.

Against the backdrop of global challenges such as climate change, resource depletion, and social inequality, the imperative for sustainable finance has never been greater. The Fintech Summit provided a platform for thought leaders to reflect on the role of technology in advancing sustainability goals and fostering a more resilient and equitable financial ecosystem.

At the heart of the discussions was the recognition that sustainability is not just a moral imperative but also a strategic imperative for Fintech firms. By integrating ESG considerations into their operations, products, and services, Fintech companies can mitigate risks, enhance resilience, and unlock new opportunities for growth and value creation. Xettle Technologies’ representatives underscored the company’s commitment to sustainability, highlighting how it is embedded in the company’s culture, innovation agenda, and business strategy.

One of the key themes that emerged from the summit was the role of Fintech in driving sustainable investment. Through innovative solutions such as green bonds, impact investing platforms, and ESG scoring algorithms, Fintech firms are empowering investors to allocate capital towards environmentally and socially responsible projects and companies. Xettle Technologies showcased its suite of Fintech software solutions designed to facilitate sustainable investing, enabling financial institutions and investors to align their portfolios with their values and sustainability objectives.

Moreover, the summit explored the transformative potential of blockchain technology in advancing sustainability goals. By enhancing transparency, traceability, and accountability in supply chains, blockchain can help address issues such as deforestation, forced labor, and conflict minerals. Xettle Technologies’ experts elaborated on the company’s blockchain-based solutions for supply chain finance and sustainability reporting, emphasizing their role in promoting ethical sourcing, responsible production, and fair labor practices.

In addition to sustainable investing and supply chain transparency, the summit delved into the role of Fintech in promoting financial inclusion and resilience. By leveraging technology and data analytics, Fintech firms can expand access to financial services for underserved populations, empower small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and build more inclusive and resilient communities. Xettle Technologies’ representatives shared insights into the company’s initiatives to support financial inclusion through digital payments, microfinance, and alternative credit scoring models.

Furthermore, the summit highlighted the importance of collaboration and partnership in advancing sustainability goals. Recognizing the interconnected nature of sustainability challenges, participants underscored the need for cross-sectoral collaboration between Fintech firms, financial institutions, governments, civil society, and academia. Xettle Technologies reiterated its commitment to collaboration, emphasizing its partnerships with industry stakeholders to drive collective action and scale impact.

Looking ahead, the future of sustainability in Fintech appears promising yet complex. As Fintech firms continue to innovate and disrupt traditional financial systems, they must prioritize sustainability as a core principle and driver of value creation. Xettle Technologies’ visionaries reiterated their commitment to sustainability, pledging to harness the power of technology to build a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient financial ecosystem for future generations.

In conclusion, the Fintech Summit served as a catalyst for reflection and action on the role of sustainability in shaping the future of finance. From sustainable investing and supply chain transparency to financial inclusion and resilience, Fintech has the potential to drive positive change and advance sustainability goals on a global scale. Xettle Technologies’ leadership in integrating sustainability into its Fintech solutions exemplifies its dedication to driving innovation and creating shared value for society and the planet. As the industry continues to evolve, collaboration, innovation, and sustainability will be key drivers of success in building a more sustainable and resilient financial future.

#Fintech Summary #Fintech Summit #Fintech News #Startup Life #Treanding

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abigail-pent · 2 years ago

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The more I read about EA the more ridiculous it seems. Like the initial idea, sure, as an economist I've got some time for the idea you should spend your money so it can do the most good, and that "most good" can mean "most lives saved today." But then to even make the jump from there to "get a job where you will make the most money and give it all away to save lives" -- that's a big jump, and completely ignores the possibility (near certainty!) that a job which is making the most money is also generating structural harm, so the number of lives you save this way may well be negative, on net. To say nothing of the harm that you do by funneling philanthropic resources towards the cheapest interventions, as opposed to investing in structural change. Big leaps already, and I'm not on board. But at that point the EA movement is telling people to get very rich so they can give everything away, and that means it takes on the character of a club for rich kids, who are largely a combination of tech and finance bros. And because the kinds of people who find this appealing tend to be quantitative-minded people from privileged backgrounds, they are choosing to give up money but still want some marker of status and hierarchy. So of course the signifier of hierarchy which replaces wealth, for this crowd, is the ability to perform a certain flavor of intelligence. And in the process of performing this type of "smarts", one of them comes up with this idea that "long term risks" with near zero probability should be treated as though they're equally important as, or more important than, real suffering happening today. So basically a big chunk of this rich kids' club ends up spending absolute whackadoodle amounts of money to try to keep a sci-fi AI apocalypse from happening. Which. Like. No. Not sorry whatsoever to say that placing greater weight on this eventual, not-technically-impossible-but-only-because-nothing-is outcome than on the *actual* plight of someone currently alive and without shelter or food, is something that only members of a rich kids club could come up with, while having some kind of dick-measuring contest with their purported brains. And now one of their leading lights has just revealed he's been running some kind of crypto ponzi scheme, and gave an interview to a reporter via twitter dm in which he admits the whole "ethics" thing he claimed to believe in was just bullshit posturing all along.

absolute, absolute trashfire. cannot wait for the hulu docuseries. (literally the guy who wrote the big short was embedded with the ponzi scheme guys for the past 6 months.)

#tagging this as ea i guess?

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govindhtech · 6 days ago

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Google Cloud Document AI Layout Parser For RAG pipelines

Google Cloud Document AI

One of the most frequent challenges in developing retrieval augmented generation (RAG) pipelines is document preparation. Parsing documents, such as PDFs, into digestible parts that can be utilized to create embeddings frequently calls for Python expertise and other libraries. In this blog post, examine new features in BigQuery and Google Cloud Document AI that make this process easier and walk you through a detailed sample.

Streamline document processing in BigQuery

With its tight interaction with Google Cloud Document AI, BigQuery now provides the capability of preprocessing documents for RAG pipelines and other document-centric applications. Now that it’s widely available, the ML.PROCESS_DOCUMENT function can access additional processors, such as Document AI’s Layout Parser processor, which enables you to parse and chunk PDF documents using SQL syntax.

ML.PROCESS_DOCUMENT’s GA offers developers additional advantages:

Increased scalability: The capacity to process documents more quickly and handle larger ones up to 100 pages

Simplified syntax: You can communicate with Google Cloud Document AI and integrate them more easily into your RAG workflows with a simplified SQL syntax.

Document chunking: To create the document chunks required for RAG pipelines, access to extra Document AI processor capabilities, such as Layout Parser,

Specifically, document chunking is a crucial yet difficult step of creating a RAG pipeline. This procedure is made simpler by Google Cloud Document AI Layout Parser. Its examine how this functions in BigQuery and soon illustrate its efficacy with a real-world example.

Document preprocessing for RAG

A large language model (LLM) can provide more accurate responses when huge documents are divided into smaller, semantically related components. This increases the relevance of the information that is retrieved.

To further improve your RAG pipeline, you can generate metadata along with chunks, such as document source, chunk position, and structural information. This will allow you to filter, refine your search results, and debug your code.

A high-level summary of the preparation stages of a simple RAG pipeline is given in the diagram below:Image credit to Google cloud

Build a RAG pipeline in BigQuery

Because of their intricate structure and combination of text, numbers, and tables, financial records such as earnings statements can be difficult to compare. Let’s show you how to use Document AI’s Layout Parser to create a RAG pipeline in BigQuery for analyzing the Federal Reserve’s 2023 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) report. You may follow along here in the notebook.

Conventional parsing methods have considerable difficulties when dealing with dense financial documents, such as the SCF report from the Federal Reserve. It is challenging to properly extract information from this roughly 60-page document because it has a variety of text, intricate tables, and embedded charts. In these situations, Google Cloud Document AI Layout Parser shines, efficiently locating and obtaining important data from intricate document layouts like these.

The following general procedures make up building a BigQuery RAG pipeline using Document AI’s Layout Parser.

Create a Layout Parser processor

Make a new processor in Google Cloud Document AI of the LAYOUT_PARSER_PROCESSOR type. The documents can then be accessed and processed by BigQuery by creating a remote model that points to this processor.

Request chunk creation from the CPU

SELECT * FROM ML.PROCESS_DOCUMENT( MODEL docai_demo.layout_parser, TABLE docai_demo.demo, PROCESS_OPTIONS => ( JSON ‘{“layout_config”: {“chunking_config”: {“chunk_size”: 300}}}’) );

Create vector embeddings for the chunks

Using the ML.GENERATE_EMBEDDING function, its will create embeddings for every document chunk and write them to a BigQuery table in order to facilitate semantic search and retrieval. Two arguments are required for this function to work:

The Vertex AI embedding endpoints are called by a remote model.

A BigQuery database column with information for embedding.

Create a vector index on the embeddings

Google Cloud build a vector index on the embeddings to effectively search through big sections based on semantic similarity. In the absence of a vector index, conducting a search necessitates comparing each query embedding to each embedding in your dataset, which is cumbersome and computationally costly when working with a lot of chunks. To expedite this process, vector indexes employ strategies such as approximate nearest neighbor search.

CREATE VECTOR INDEX my_index ON docai_demo.embeddings(ml_generate_embedding_result) OPTIONS(index_type = “TREE_AH”, distance_type = “EUCLIDIAN” );

Retrieve relevant chunks and send to LLM for answer generation

To locate chunks that are semantically related to input query, they can now conduct a vector search. In this instance, inquire about the changes in average family net worth throughout the three years covered by this report.

SELECT ml_generate_text_llm_result AS generated, prompt FROM ML.GENERATE_TEXT( MODEL docai_demo.gemini_flash, ( SELECT CONCAT( ‘Did the typical family net worth change? How does this compare the SCF survey a decade earlier? Be concise and use the following context:’, STRING_AGG(FORMAT(“context: %s and reference: %s”, base.content, base.uri), ‘,\n’)) AS prompt, FROM VECTOR_SEARCH( TABLE docai_demo.embeddings, ‘ml_generate_embedding_result’, ( SELECT ml_generate_embedding_result, content AS query FROM ML.GENERATE_EMBEDDING( MODEL docai_demo.embedding_model, ( SELECT ‘Did the typical family net worth increase? How does this compare the SCF survey a decade earlier?’ AS content ) ) ), top_k => 10, OPTIONS => ‘{“fraction_lists_to_search”: 0.01}’) ), STRUCT(512 AS max_output_tokens, TRUE AS flatten_json_output) );

And have an answer: the median family net worth rose 37% between 2019 and 2022, a substantial rise over the 2% decline observed over the same time a decade earlier. If you look at the original paper, you’ll see that this information is located throughout the text, tables, and footnotes areas that are typically difficult to interpret and draw conclusions from together!

Although a simple RAG flow was shown in this example, real-world applications frequently call for constant updates. Consider a situation in which a Cloud Storage bucket receives new financial information every day. Consider using Cloud Composer or BigQuery Workflows to create embeddings in BigQuery and process new documents incrementally to keep your RAG pipeline current. When the underlying data changes, vector indexes are automatically updated to make sure you are always querying the most recent data.

Read more on Govindhtech.com

#DocumentAI #AI #RAGpipelines #BigQuery #RAG #GoogleCloudDocumentAI #LLM #cloudcomputing #News #Technews #Technology #Technologynews #Technologytrends #govindhtech

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oracle-fusion-financials-1 · 7 days ago

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An Overview of Reporting Capabilities within Oracle Fusion

Oracle Fusion is a powerful suite of applications designed to streamline business processes, improve efficiency, and enable data-driven decision-making. One of the standout features of Oracle Fusion is its robust reporting capabilities, which allow users to gain insights from data and provide meaningful information for management, operations, and strategic planning. This article explores Oracle Fusion’s reporting tools, their features, and the benefits they offer to organizations.

Key Reporting Tools in Oracle Fusion

Oracle Fusion’s reporting capabilities are versatile, encompassing various tools and methods to suit different reporting needs. Here are some of the primary reporting tools within the platform:

Oracle Business Intelligence (BI) Publisher

Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence (OTBI)

Oracle Fusion Financials Reporting Studio

Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC)

Each of these tools has unique strengths, allowing users to leverage their specific capabilities for different types of reporting needs.

1. Oracle Business Intelligence (BI) Publisher

Oracle BI Publisher is a powerful reporting tool within Oracle Fusion, known for its ability to generate highly formatted reports. It simplifies the process of creating, managing, and delivering reports by allowing users to design layouts in popular formats like Microsoft Word, Excel, and Adobe PDF.

Data Source Integration: BI Publisher allows users to connect to various data sources, such as Oracle databases, Web services, and file-based data, providing a centralized platform for data consolidation.

Template Flexibility: With BI Publisher, users can design report templates that can be reused across different reports, helping standardize reporting formats while reducing time spent on repetitive tasks.

Automated Scheduling and Distribution: BI Publisher enables automated report scheduling and distribution. Reports can be set to run at specific times, delivered directly to users' email inboxes, or saved to a specific location.

Interactive Reports: Users can interact with the report data directly, making it easier to customize, filter, and drill down into specific details as needed.

Use Case: BI Publisher is ideal for creating operational reports, such as invoices, purchase orders, and other transactional documents, where high formatting control is essential.

2. Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence (OTBI)

OTBI is a real-time, ad-hoc reporting tool embedded within Oracle Fusion, enabling users to create custom reports directly from live transactional data. This tool is designed with end-users in mind, allowing business users to create and modify reports without needing deep technical expertise.

Real-Time Data Access: One of the major benefits of OTBI is its ability to access real-time data from Oracle Fusion applications, making it a perfect tool for operational reporting and analysis.

Self-Service Reporting: OTBI empowers users to build reports and dashboards independently through its drag-and-drop interface, reducing reliance on IT departments.

Data Model Flexibility: OTBI offers pre-built subject areas that align with Oracle Fusion applications (e.g., Financials, HCM, Procurement). Users can select from various subject areas, such as finance, human resources, and sales, to build custom reports.

Visualization Tools: OTBI supports a variety of visualization options, including charts, graphs, and pivot tables, helping users to present their data effectively.

Use Case: OTBI is suitable for managers and business users who need quick insights and want to create their own reports on KPIs, financial trends, or HR data without waiting for IT support.

3. Oracle Fusion Financials Reporting Studio

Oracle Fusion Financials Reporting Studio is a purpose-built tool specifically for financial reporting. It is particularly useful for accountants and finance professionals who need detailed, structured reports for financial analysis, audit, and compliance purposes.

General Ledger Integration: Reporting Studio integrates closely with the General Ledger, allowing users to create financial statements like balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow reports based on real-time financial data.

Drill-Down Capabilities: The tool offers drill-down capabilities, allowing users to click on high-level financial figures to see the detailed transactions behind them. This feature is particularly useful for audit and reconciliation tasks.

Hierarchical Reporting: Financials Reporting Studio supports multi-dimensional reporting with hierarchies, making it possible to view reports by segments such as departments, cost centers, or geographical locations.

Compliance and Accuracy: Built for financial reporting, the tool ensures compliance with accounting standards, providing the accuracy and structure needed for auditing and financial disclosures.

4. Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC)

Oracle Analytics Cloud extends Oracle Fusion's reporting capabilities with advanced analytics and data visualization. OAC is a cloud-based solution that combines business intelligence, analytics, and data visualization in a single platform.

Advanced Data Modeling and Analysis: OAC allows users to perform sophisticated data modeling, making it a strong choice for predictive analytics and trend analysis.

Enhanced Visualization Options: With OAC, users can create dynamic dashboards, interactive reports, and visual data stories, which are useful for executive presentations and strategic planning.

Machine Learning and AI Integration: OAC supports machine learning and AI capabilities, enabling users to uncover hidden insights and automate data-driven predictions.

Data Blending and Integration: Users can combine data from various sources beyond Oracle Fusion, including third-party data sources, enabling a holistic view of the business.

Use Case: OAC is ideal for strategic reporting, trend analysis, and forecasting, providing insights that can drive long-term planning and decision-making at the executive level.

Benefits of Oracle Fusion Reporting Tools

Each reporting tool within Oracle Fusion offers specific advantages, but there are several common benefits they bring to organizations:

Improved Decision-Making: With access to real-time data and analytics, users can make better-informed decisions that align with business goals and market trends.

Enhanced Productivity: Self-service tools like OTBI empower business users to create reports independently, reducing reliance on IT resources and speeding up the reporting process.

ConclusionOracle Fusion’s reporting capabilities provide a comprehensive and flexible framework for data analysis, catering to a wide range of business requirements from operational to strategic reporting. Whether users need simple, real-time insights or complex, highly formatted financial reports, Oracle Fusion’s suite of reporting tools—BI Publisher, OTBI, Financials Reporting Studio, and Oracle Analytics Cloud—empowers them to deliver meaningful insights with ease. By leveraging these tools, organizations can enhance decision-making, improve productivity, and drive business growth through data-driven strategies. To Your bright future join Oracle Fusion Financials.

#erptree #jobguarantee #oraclefusion #financejobs #financecareers #hyderabadtraining #oraclefusionfinancials #careergrowth #erptraining #100jobguarantee

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news365timesindia · 8 days ago

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[ad_1] Home Credit India, a local arm of the leading global consumer finance provider, has released the findings of its annual consumer study - How India Borrows. The sixth edition of the study reported a significant shift in borrowing patterns among the lower-middle-class consumers, transitioning from survival-driven borrowing to one fuelled by aspirations, entrepreneurship, and long-term investments. This transformation reflects India's evolving socio-economic landscape, where consumers are increasingly focused on improving their quality of life, empowered by greater access to credit and the growth of digital platforms.How India Borrows 2024Speaking on the sixth consumer study, Ashish Tiwari, Chief Marketing Officer, Home Credit India, said, "Our latest How India Borrows 2024 study highlights a transformational shift in the borrowing behaviour among the lower-middle-class borrowers. It shows an increasing preference towards borrowing for consumer durables and small business ventures and consumer's growing comfort with app-based banking, chatbots for customer service, WhatsApp payments, and digital literacy, reflecting not only the evolving financial aspirations of borrowers to enhance their lifestyle and income opportunities, but also the growing role of digital platforms in making credit more accessible. The study also points out the strong affinity towards embedded finance and EMI-based financing and the importance of raising awareness around data privacy. Keeping this in mind, Home Credit India remains committed to providing transparent, secure, convenient, and accessible financial solutions, empowering consumers on their journey towards a better quality of life and fostering a responsible and inclusive financial future for all, thus partnering with them in making their #ZindagiHit."Borrowing Behaviour Among ConsumersAccording to the study, most of the loans were taken to purchase consumer durables, followed by lending for business and house renovation. For example, borrowing for smartphones and home appliances increased from 1% in 2020 to 37% in 2024, indicating a continuous rise in borrowing for acquiring new technology and consumer durables. Borrowing for business expansion and start-ups jumped from 5% in 2020 to 21% in 2024, fuelling a sustained entrepreneurial momentum as individuals sought new income streams and opportunities, driven by pandemic-related economic shifts and strong government support for MSMEs through credit schemes and subsidies. Borrowing for home renovation/construction saw a modest rise, from 9% in 2022 to 15% in 2024, reflecting the rising consumer interest in improving living conditions, enhancing home value, an optimistic economic outlook, and a focus on long-term investment in assets.The study further showed stable trends in education loans, which remained at 4% from 2022 to 2024, underscoring the continued importance of children's education. Borrowing for marriages gradually increased from 3% in 2021 to 5% in 2024, highlighting the continued cultural importance of fulfilling social commitments. Interestingly, borrowing for medical emergencies has dropped significantly, from 7% in 2020 to 3% in 2024, which could be attributed to improved financial planning, more affordable healthcare options, and better access to insurance.Rise in Digital Financial TransactionsThe study indicated that as consumers become more tech-savvy, their borrowing habits are also shifting towards app-based banking, with 65% favouring it over browser-based banking (44%) in 2024. This trend reflects the consumers growing preference for convenience, 24/7 financial access over traditional branch visits, and heightened digital literacy. App-based banking is most popular among Millennials (69%), followed by Gen Z (65%) and Gen X (58%). Geographically, Metros lead with 71% adoption, followed by Tier 2 cities at 69%. Browser-based banking, meanwhile, sees higher usage among Gen Z and Millennials at 47% each, with Gen X having the lowest usage at 35%.

Online shopping has also shown a pattern of normalisation following the peak disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, usage of online shopping hit 69% due to health and safety concerns but dropped to 48% in 2023 as restrictions eased. By 2024, it has slightly rebounded to 53%. Women (60%), Millennials (59%), Gen Z (58%), Metros and Tier 2 cities (56% each) now drive this trend. Kolkata (71%), Kochi (66%), Hyderabad (64%), Chennai (60%), and Ranchi (59%) are the top five cities in terms of online shoppers.Increased Usage of Chatbots and WhatsAppAs per the study, Chatbots are gaining traction in customer service, with 27% of middle-class borrowers citing familiarity with the tool, up 4% from last year. Awareness is stronger among Gen Z at 30%. Additionally, 38% of borrowers find chatbots easy to use for customer service, and 29% trust the responses provided by them.WhatsApp has also redefined the communication landscape, becoming a key channel in the lending space due to its user-friendly features and widespread adoption. It continues to gain prominence, with 59% of borrowers receiving loan offers via WhatsApp. Trust in loan offers received on WhatsApp has also grown, rising from 24% in 2023 to 26% in 2024, reflecting increasing confidence in this digital platform. Loan offers received on WhatsApp are prevalent among Gen Z (61%), and in Tier 1 cities (67%).Growing Adoption of Embedded Finance and EMI Cards Driven by their convenience in credit-related transactions, the adoption of innovative financial solutions, like embedded finance and EMI cards, is on the rise. There has been a nuanced shift in customer attitude towards embedded finance, with 43% of customers expressing interest in these services. Almost 50% of the borrowers in favour of embedded finance agree that embedded finance makes borrowing faster and e-commerce shopping simpler. For example, 64% favoured major e-commerce platforms (like Amazon, Flipkart, Meesho, etc), followed by 21% opting for travel apps (like MakeMyTrip, ClearTrip, etc.), and 23% using food delivery apps (like Zomato, Swiggy, etc).According to the study, interest in embedded finance is notably higher among Gen Z (55%) and Men (45%), highlighting a demographic divide in engagement. Additionally, customers in Tier 1 cities, particularly in urban centers, such as Lucknow (68%), Patna (53%), Ahmedabad (52%), Bhopal (52%), and Ranchi (52%), exhibited a greater propensity towards embedded finance.EMI Cards remained the most popular credit tool among the lower-middle-class borrowers in India, with 43% citing them as their preferred option due to greater trust and faster disbursals. Other popular sources for obtaining loans include credit cards, preferred by 24% of borrowers, and digital lending apps, preferred by 12%.Balance Between Digital Convenience and Human ConnectionA growing shift in loan acquisition patterns was noticed in the study, with 48% of borrowers opting to visit physical branches, underscoring the enduring preference for face-to-face interactions; 30% of borrowers opting to complete applications online, reflecting the growing confidence in technology and convenience; and 22% of borrowers relying on customer care representatives, highlighting the need for human intervention.Borrowing preferences differ notably by region. In Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities like Kochi (85%), Lucknow (73%), and Ranchi (69%), borrowers prefer physical branches, indicating that people value personal interaction and trust. Meanwhile, borrowers in metropolitan cities such as Bengaluru (64%), Hyderabad (53%), and Chennai (48%) increasingly lean towards online channels due to accessibility and tech familiarity, reflecting their openness to digital financial services.Interestingly, the preference for digital loan channels for future credit needs has declined by 10% from the previous year, signalling an increasing demand for more personalised, human-centred lending solutions. For financial companies, this shift

emphasises the need to enhance customer experiences by blending digital efficiency with empathetic human support, redefining the loan acquisition process to better resonate with modern consumers.Awareness of Data PrivacyThe study also highlighted a growing awareness gap regarding data privacy guidelines among borrowers. 24% of borrowers have claimed to have heard of the data privacy requirements that lending companies must implement, an 8% increase from last year, but this understanding is superficial as their knowledge on the subject is negligible. Nearly half (48%) of the lower-middle-class borrowers don't understand anything about the data protection guidelines, highlighting the need for increased transparency and education from financial institutions and regulators.In terms of comprehension of the data protection rules and guidelines, approximately 40% of borrowers claim to understand, with 38% recognising that these guidelines prohibit unauthorised data sharing. Borrowers from Kochi (49%) and Chennai (43%) seem to be more digitally advanced and claim to understand the usage of personal data. However, only 15% of borrowers are aware that these guidelines specifically pertain to the use of their data exclusively for the loan application process, a 3% increase compared to last year.The study also found that about 58% of borrowers are concerned about how their personal data is collected and used by lending apps. Almost half of the borrowers (57%) voiced that they don't have any control over their personal data with the lending apps, and 49% of the borrowers feel that the lending apps collect more data than required. Although less than one-fourth (23%) of the borrowers understand the usage of their personal data by lending apps, a strong demand for transparency exists as more than three-fourths (76%) of borrowers seek clarity on the usage of their personal data. Tier 1 (87%), Gen Z (80%), and Men (78%) are particularly interested in learning about the use of their personal data.Need for Financial LiteracyThe study also showed varying levels of interest in financial education. 15% of borrowers reported needing assistance while using internet banking, loan applications, payment wallets, and other critical online financial tasks, indicating that a notable portion of users, especially Women (17%), Gen X (24%) and borrowers in Tier 1 cities (18%), still encounter challenges or lack confidence in managing their financial activities digitally.33% of borrowers, on the other hand, expressed a desire for guidance from reputable organisations on the usage of internet related tasks, particularly Gen Z (40%), Women, (37%), and borrowers in Tier 1 and Tier 2 (36% each), demonstrating a stronger demand for being equipped or educated to effectively manage online financial tasks.The How India Borrows 2024 study was conducted across 17 cities including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Bhopal, Patna, Ranchi, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Kochi, and Dehradun. The sample size consisted of approx. 2500 borrowers in the age group of 18-55 years, with an average income of Rs. 31,000 per month.About Home Credit IndiaHome Credit India Finance Pvt. Ltd. is a local arm of the international consumer finance provider Home Credit International with operations spanning Europe and Asia. The company is committed to drive credit penetration and financial inclusion by offering wide financial solutions that are simple, transparent, and accessible to all. Home Credit India has an employee base of 3800 and has been consistently expanding operations since its entry in 2012, with its operations spread over 625 cities across India. The company has a strong network of around 53,000 points-of-sale (PoS) and is growing with a customer base of over 17 million customers, driven by Pan-India expansion across major markets, a range of diversified and innovative products backed by superior customer experience.For more information, visit www.homecredit.co.in.

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paynxt360fintech · 1 year ago

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India introduces Unified Payments Interface to promote mobile money services

The National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) recently launched unified payments interface (UPI), with the objective of extending mobile money services in India. UPI will allow users to receive and transfer money through their mobile phones from their existing bank accounts, utilizing unique identification details such as their Aadhaar number, mobile number, or a virtual payments address, without being required to enter their presonal credentials such as bank account details or security pins.

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news365times · 8 days ago

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aaryablogs · 11 days ago

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allthebrazilianpolitics · 16 days ago

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Banks losing ground in payment methods

BCG advises banks to expand into areas adjacent to payments or develop new business models

A global study by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) reveals that major banks are losing market share in the payment methods sector, with fintechs experiencing faster growth. According to BCG, to remain competitive, banks should expand their operations into areas adjacent to payments or develop new business models.

“Current models are not competitively sustainable, and banks cannot afford to lose more market share,” states the study. The document highlights that there are currently almost 6,500 active payment fintechs worldwide, which have already received $125 billion in investments over the past 25 years. “Reinventing payments requires significant investment in technology. Banks must update their infrastructure to stand out and scale effectively.”

The report notes that large banks generally have a vast database that could be utilized for cross-selling and to help companies better reach retail customers. Additionally, there is a significant opportunity in embedded finance, something already being done by technology-oriented companies. “Software platforms have gained significant customer adoption by incorporating payments into their offerings. Banks can do something similar by developing solutions for specific industry verticals and making them available on their own platforms as well as those managed by software providers.”

#brazil #brazilian politics #politics #economy #banking #image description in alt #mod nise da silveira

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entreprenuer1222 · 17 days ago

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Ensuring Compliance and Risk Management with ERP Solutions: The Role of SAP B1

Introduction

Ensuring compliance and managing risks are critical for maintaining business integrity and protecting organizational assets. ERP solutions like SAP Business One (SAP B1) offer features that support compliance and risk management by providing visibility and control over business processes. This essay explores the role of SAP B1 in ensuring compliance and managing risks.

Centralized Compliance Management

SAP B1 centralizes compliance management by integrating regulatory requirements and internal controls into the ERP system. This centralization ensures that compliance-related tasks are managed efficiently and consistently. For example, SAP B1 includes features for tracking regulatory changes, managing compliance documentation, and ensuring adherence to industry standards.

Automated Risk Management

Automation is a key feature of SAP B1 that supports risk management by reducing manual effort and minimizing errors. Automated processes such as financial reconciliation, audit trails, and compliance checks help businesses manage risks more effectively. For instance, automated financial reconciliation reduces the risk of discrepancies and ensures accurate financial reporting.

Real-Time Compliance Monitoring

SAP B1 provides real-time compliance monitoring through customizable dashboards and reports. Businesses can access up-to-date information on compliance status, risk indicators, and regulatory changes. For example, real-time compliance monitoring allows businesses to identify and address potential issues before they escalate.

Comprehensive Audit Trails

Audit trails are a critical feature of SAP B1 that support compliance and risk management by tracking changes to data and transactions. Comprehensive audit trails provide transparency and accountability, facilitating regulatory audits and internal reviews. For example, businesses can use audit trails to verify financial transactions and ensure compliance with accounting standards.

Enhanced Data Security

Data security is essential for protecting sensitive information and managing risks. SAP B1 includes features for securing data through access controls, encryption, and regular backups. For example, businesses can implement role-based access controls to restrict data access to authorized users and protect against data breaches.

Integration with Risk Management Processes

SAP B1 integrates risk management processes with other business functions, such as finance, procurement, and inventory management. This integration ensures that risk management is embedded into daily operations and supports proactive risk mitigation. For example, integration with procurement processes helps businesses manage supplier risks and ensure compliance with contractual obligations.

Conclusion

ERP solutions like SAP Business One play a crucial role in ensuring compliance and managing risks. By centralizing compliance management, automating risk management, providing real-time monitoring, offering comprehensive audit trails, enhancing data security, and integrating with risk management processes, SAP B1 helps businesses maintain regulatory compliance and protect against risks. For organizations seeking to enhance compliance and risk management, SAP B1 provides a valuable solution.

Article in courtesy of MPS Solutions - SAP Business One Software Solutions - ERP Software Solutions and Customisation, CRM, Accounting, and IT helpdesk outsource, remote, onsite, support services for all your company in Singapore.

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upsyde21 · 19 days ago

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Climate Action and Financial Strategy Recent PwC research highlights the critical role of CFOs in embedding climate action into financial planning. By aligning finance with environmental goals, CFOs can guide companies to mitigate risks and leverage opportunities in sustainability. Key actions include investing in green technologies and enhancing energy efficiency to reduce costs and attract eco-conscious investors and customers. Transparent sustainability reporting is essential for meeting investor and regulatory expectations and building trust. Integrating sustainability not only manages climate-related risks but also opens growth opportunities, strengthens reputations, and fosters long-term success in a market increasingly focused on environmental responsibility. For more info visit Upsyde.

#upsyde #finance #economics #investing #entrepreneur

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jayanthitbrc · 22 days ago

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Global Equipment Finance Services Market Analysis 2024: Size Forecast and Growth Prospects

The equipment finance services global market report 2024 from The Business Research Company provides comprehensive market statistics, including global market size, regional shares, competitor market share, detailed segments, trends, and opportunities. This report offers an in-depth analysis of current and future industry scenarios, delivering a complete perspective for thriving in the industrial automation software market.

Equipment Finance Services Market, 2024 report by The Business Research Company offers comprehensive insights into the current state of the market and highlights future growth opportunities.

Market Size - The equipment finance services market size has grown rapidly in recent years. It will grow from $1,200.45 billion in 2023 to $1,333.83 billion in 2024 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.1%. The growth in the historic period can be attributed to economic growth and stability influencing capital investments, regulatory changes impacting lease accounting and tax policies, increased globalization leading to expanded equipment needs, industry-specific demands for specialized equipment solutions, and shifts in customer preferences towards leasing over purchasing.

The equipment finance services market size is expected to see rapid growth in the next few years. It will grow to $2,039.99 billion in 2028 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.2%. The growth in the forecast period can be attributed to growth in demand for flexible financing options tailored to customer needs, expansion of equipment leasing in emerging markets, rising environmental and sustainability considerations influencing equipment choices, a shift towards sustainable and eco-friendly equipment options, and the and the impact of geopolitical factors on global supply chains and equipment demand. Major trends in the forecast period include the integration of embedded insurance solutions, enhanced data analytics, the expansion of industry-specific solutions, and digital transformation.

Order your report now for swift delivery @ https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/report/equipment-finance-services-global-market-report

Scope Of Equipment Finance Services Market The Business Research Company's reports encompass a wide range of information, including:

1. Market Size (Historic and Forecast): Analysis of the market's historical performance and projections for future growth.

2. Drivers: Examination of the key factors propelling market growth.

3. Trends: Identification of emerging trends and patterns shaping the market landscape.

4. Key Segments: Breakdown of the market into its primary segments and their respective performance.

5. Focus Regions and Geographies: Insight into the most critical regions and geographical areas influencing the market.

6. Macro Economic Factors: Assessment of broader economic elements impacting the market.

Equipment Finance Services Market Overview

Market Drivers - The growth in the construction industry is expected to propel the growth of the equipment finance services market going forward. The construction industry encompasses the activities involved in building, repairing, and renovating structures. The construction industry is experiencing growth due to increasing urbanization, infrastructure development, and rising demand for residential and commercial properties. The use of equipment finance services in the construction industry supports growth by enabling companies to acquire advanced machinery and technology, improving efficiency and project scalability without substantial upfront capital expenditure. For instance, in February 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics, a UK-based statistics authority, annual construction output increased by 5.6% in 2022 compared with 2021, which follows a record increase in 2021 of 12.8%. Therefore, growth in the construction industry will drive the growth of the equipment finance services market.

Market Trends - Major companies operating in the equipment finance services market are focusing on multiple strategic areas to enhance their market position and meet evolving customer demands related to embedded coverage solutions to improve customer relationship management and streamline operational efficiencies. Embedded coverage solutions in equipment finance refer to integrated insurance or protection plans included within the financing agreement, providing automatic coverage for the financed equipment against risks such as damage, theft, or loss. For instance, in August 2023, Great American Insurance Group, a US-based provider of insurance solutions, introduced an embedded coverage solution for equipment finance companies utilizing Salesforce. This cutting-edge technology seamlessly integrates insurance solutions into the leasing process. This system makes insurance solutions available at any stage in the lease workflow, delivering the following advantages, immediate quoting and enrollment, decreased data entry using metadata, and flexible support for various workflows.

The equipment finance services market covered in this report is segmented –

1) By Type: Equipment Loan, Equipment Lease, Other Types 2) By Provider: Banks, Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC), Other Providers 3) By Application: Transportation, Aviation, Information technology (IT) And Telecom, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Construction, Other Applications

Get an inside scoop of the equipment finance services market, Request now for Sample Report @ https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/sample.aspx?id=16676&type=smp

Regional Insights - North America was the largest region in the equipment finance services market in 2023. Asia-Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the forecast period. The regions covered in the equipment finance services market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, Africa.

Key Companies - Major companies operating in the equipment finance services market are JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corporation, Wells Fargo & Company, Siemens AG, TD Bank N.A., U.S. Bancorp, Truist Financial Corporation, The PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Mitsubishi HC Capital Inc., Fifth Third Bank, Regions Financial Corporation, Huntington Bancshares Incorporated, KeyBank National Association, First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company, Macquarie Group Limited, CIT Group Inc., DLL Group, GreatAmerica Financial Services Corporation, Balboa Capital Corporation, OnDeck Capital Inc., Hitachi Capital America Corp., Crest Capital LLC, Keystone Equipment Finance Corp., Smarter Finance USA LLC

Table of Contents 1. Executive Summary 2. Equipment Finance Services Market Report Structure 3. Equipment Finance Services Market Trends And Strategies 4. Equipment Finance Services Market – Macro Economic Scenario 5. Equipment Finance Services Market Size And Growth ….. 27. Equipment Finance Services Market Competitor Landscape And Company Profiles 28. Key Mergers And Acquisitions 29. Future Outlook and Potential Analysis 30. Appendix

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