FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
Persefoni and Deloitte | November 14, 2022
Deloitte and Persefoni have formed a strategic alliance to develop analytics solutions in order to help provide organizations in the banking and insurance sectors a new path for measuring, disclosing, and managing their carbon footprints — both operational and financial — as part of their climate journey.
As chiefs of sustainability and finance work together to address their climate management and accounting platform (CMAP) needs, Persefoni and Deloitte's shared clients can now use Persefoni's software platform as well as Deloitte's deep understanding of environment, social and governance (ESG) practices and financial analytics to help address their sustainability and climate goals. As part of this collaboration, Deloitte has developed and integrated accelerators, analytics tools, and capabilities to help clients in the financial services industry understand risks and value-creation opportunities based on financed emissions portfolio data.
Why this matters
Financial organizations play a critical role in facilitating the Paris Agreement-aligned decarbonization journeys of their customers in addition to their own operations. With 40% of global banking assets committed to net-zero by 2050 under the Net Zero Banking Alliance and mounting pressure from governments, regulators and capital markets, banks of all sizes are moving towards disclosure of their operational and financed emissions footprint. As banks and insurers work to meet their net-zero goals and better mitigate their climate exposure, developing robust CMAP use will be critical, especially as ESG disclosures become further codified and regulated.
"Persefoni is excited to formalize our alliance with Deloitte, a global leader in sustainability, climate and equity strategy and transformation, and trusted advisor to many of the world's largest companies and financial institutions, Enabled by Persefoni's best-in-class technology platform and Deloitte's leading sustainability, digital transformation, risk, advisory, and reporting services, our shared clients in the banking and insurance sectors will have access to the best possible support on their climate journeys — from meeting compliance requirements to analyzing climate exposure within their portfolios and optimizing business strategies."
-Kentaro Kawamori, CEO and co-founder of Persefoni
Our banking and insurance clients know that carbon accounting can't be improvised, Leveraging the rich data in Persefoni's platform alongside Deloitte's related analytics and services, we can help organizations through their end-to-end ESG transformation. As banks and insurance organizations look to address carbon accounting requirements by understanding and evolving the financed emissions in their portfolios, our shared clients will be able to chart those financed emissions, analyze critical business risks, identify opportunities to enhance the composition of their financed portfolio, and prepare to meet their disclosure and reporting obligations,said Ricardo Martinez, Deloitte Risk & Financial Advisory's sustainability, climate and equity practice leader for financial services and principal, Deloitte & Touche LLP.
Connor Taylor, industry analyst at Verdantix, a leading research and advisory firm, said, We find that corporate decision-makers need purpose-built tools that enable them to measure and report on their carbon emissions. The alliance between Persefoni's carbon accounting and management platform and Deloitte's accelerators and data analytics capabilities can help companies address common issues such as information irregularity, lack of data, and regulatory complexity that have historically impeded accurate environmental footprint assessments.
About Persefoni
Persefoni's Climate Management & Accounting Platform (CMAP) provides businesses, financial institutions, and governmental agencies the software fabric for managing their organization's climate related data and performance with the same level of confidence as their financial reporting systems. The company's software solutions enable users to calculate their carbon footprint, perform climate trajectory modeling aligned to temperature rise scenarios set forth by the Paris agreement, and benchmark their impact by region, sector, or peer groups. Persefoni was designed to enable enterprises and financial institutions to calculate their Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions in accordance with the GHG Protocol and the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF), and was an early pioneer in enabling financial institutions and asset managers to calculate Scope 3, Category 15 (financed emissions).
About Deloitte
Deloitte provides industry-leading audit, consulting, tax and advisory services to many of the world's most admired brands, including nearly 90% of the Fortune 500® and more than 7,000 private companies. Our people come together for the greater good and work across the industry sectors that drive and shape today's marketplace — delivering measurable and lasting results that help reinforce public trust in our capital markets, inspire clients to see challenges as opportunities to transform and thrive, and help lead the way toward a stronger economy and a healthier society. Deloitte is proud to be part of the largest global professional services network serving our clients in the markets that are most important to them. Building on more than 175 years of service, our network of member firms spans more than 150 countries and territories. Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the "Deloitte" name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.
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FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT,BITCOIN AND CRYPTO
Bakkt and Apex Fintech Solutions | November 03, 2022
Bakkt Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: BKKT) (the “Company” or “Bakkt”), a digital asset platform that unlocks crypto and drives loyalty to create delightful, connected experiences for a broad range of clients, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Apex Crypto, LLC from Apex Fintech Solutions, Inc. This acquisition is expected to significantly bolster Bakkt’s cryptocurrency product offering and expand its footprint into additional client verticals including fintechs, trading app platforms, and neo-banks.
“We found a unique asset in Apex Crypto, which will expand our crypto client base, provide us with faster speed to market for new crypto capabilities and serve as an additional avenue for continued sales to a crypto-savvy audience through Apex Fintech Solutions, With the addition of this complementary business, we believe we are poised to be a crypto provider of choice for financial institutions, fintechs, merchants or loyalty programs that want to offer seamless crypto experiences to their customers. It’s also expected to enable us to unlock more innovative opportunities that appeal to the next generation of consumers such as crypto rewards and NFTs.”
-Gavin Michael, CEO of Bakkt
Apex Crypto is a turnkey platform for integrated crypto trading, developed to meet the increasing needs of more than 30 fintech firms and their customers across a rapidly expanding sector. Apex Crypto supports clients with a robust solution for execution, clearing, custody, cost basis and tax services facilitating the delivery of frictionless crypto investing in more than 30 tokens.
Under the terms of the transaction, Bakkt and Apex Fintech Solutions will enter into a commercial agreement that memorializes the continued relationship and provision of Bakkt crypto solutions to Apex’s 220+ clients. As part of the ongoing collaboration, Apex Fintech Solutions will have the opportunity to bring Bakkt’s leading platform solutions to its clients.
It’s our purpose at Apex to enable frictionless investing for everyone and Bakkt’s team and platform are a tremendous complement to that, We look forward to working together to continue to provide customers a seamless crypto experience and access to an expanded solution set. This is the beginning of an exciting time of growth and innovation for both of our organizations, said William Capuzzi, CEO of Apex Fintech Solutions.
Launched in 2019, Apex Crypto was created to allow investors to transition between trading equities and cryptocurrency by offering efficient account opening and funding solutions. Additionally, the Apex Crypto platform handles the complex regulatory and licensing obligations associated with cryptocurrency investing while allowing its clients to focus on offering a holistic user experience.
Transaction Highlights
The transaction is expected to deliver revenue diversification and synergies to Bakkt as it scales its offerings
Bakkt believes that Apex’s Crypto platform will accelerate its product innovation and development, with complementary crypto solutions that will offer our combined partners expanded options and functionality
Bakkt and Apex Crypto’s joint capabilities are expected to create faster speed to market for more advanced crypto products, including staking, external transfers and NFTs
Transaction Details
Under the terms of the agreement, Bakkt will acquire Apex Crypto for a maximum purchase price of $200 million. Bakkt will initially pay $55 million in cash at the closing of the deal, and up to $45 million in Bakkt stock depending on the achievement of financial targets by the acquired business in the fourth quarter of 2022; up to an additional $100 million in Bakkt stock and seller notes may be paid depending on the achievement of financial targets by the acquired business through 2025.
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2023 and is subject to required regulatory approvals.
Conference Call Details
Bakkt will host a conference call on Thursday, November 3rd at 8:00 am ET. The live webcast of Bakkt’s conference call can be accessed at https://investors.bakkt.com along with the accompanying slide presentation. Investors and analysts interested in participating via telephone should pre-register at this link and reference participant access code 69938 approximately ten minutes prior to the start of the call to receive the dial-in information. A replay will be available promptly after the call and can be accessed at 800-770-2030 with participant access code 69938 until December 3rd.
About Bakkt
Bakkt is a digital asset platform that unlocks crypto and drives loyalty to create delightful, connected experiences for a broad range of clients. Bakkt’s platform, available through the Bakkt App and to partners, amplifies consumer spending and bolsters loyalty programs, adding value for all key stakeholders within the Bakkt payments and digital assets ecosystem. Launched in 2018, Bakkt is headquartered in Alpharetta, GA.
About Apex Fintech Solutions
Apex Fintech Solutions is a fintech powerhouse enabling seamless access, frictionless investing, and investor education for all. Apex’s omni-suite of scalable solutions fuel innovation and evolution for hundreds of today’s market leaders, challengers, change makers, and visionaries. The Company’s digital ecosystem creates an environment where clients with the biggest ideas are empowered to change the world. Apex works to enable their partners to succeed on the frontlines of the industry via bespoke custody & clearing, advisory, institutional, and SaaS solutions through its Apex Clearing™, Apex Advisor Solutions™, Apex Silver™, and Apex CODA Markets™ brands.
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FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
Finastra | November 08, 2022
Finastra, a global provider of financial software applications and marketplaces, and Jifiti, a leading global fintech company, today announced a collaboration to extend embedded finance capabilities to all financial institutions in the Finastra BaaS (Banking as a Service) ecosystem. Banks will be able to deliver financing offerings to consumers via merchants at point-of-sale, providing a better digital customer experience and choice for end users.
Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) is a key component of the fast-growing embedded finance space, and with Jifiti's white-labeled platform financial institutions can easily embed financing or split pay offerings at any merchant's point-of-sale at scale - online, in-store and via call center. Financial institutions that work with Finastra to power core banking capabilities will benefit from pre-integration of Jifiti's platform with Finastra's systems. The simple cloud deployment is available via Finastra's FusionFabric.cloud open development platform.
"Complementing the recent launch of our BaaS embedded consumer lending proposition, we look forward to leveraging Jifiti's best-in-class retail point-of-sale solution to give financial institutions a simple way to provide a seamless, embedded finance offering with a fully digital-first experience, The move further enhances our BaaS proposition at Finastra and forms part of our commitment to being a leading orchestrator in financial services."
-Jeannette Kescenovitz, Sr. Director Solution Management, BaaS & Orchestration at Finastra
Jifiti's modular platform supports every point-of-sale financing option, including installment loans, lines of credit, split payments and B2B financing. Because the platform is white-labeled, financial institutions and merchants retain full customer and data ownership.
At Jifiti we're committed to facilitating responsible, accessible and affordable financial solutions, and have always regarded banks and financial institutions as the future of BNPL. We're excited to be working with Finastra to help financial institutions transform their consumer financing programs and promote their own brands to end users at any point-of-sale, stated Yaacov Martin, CEO and Co-Founder of Jifiti.
About Finastra
Finastra is a global provider of financial software applications and marketplaces, and launched the leading open platform for innovation, FusionFabric.cloud, in 2017. It serves institutions of all sizes, providing award-winning solutions and services across Lending, Payments, Treasury & Capital Markets and Universal Banking (Retail, Digital and Commercial Banking) for banks to support direct banking relationships and grow through indirect channels, such as embedded finance and Banking as a Service. Its pioneering approach and commitment to open finance and collaboration is why it is trusted by ~8,600 institutions, including 90 of the world's top 100 banks.
About Jifiti
Jifiti is a leading fintech company that powers point-of-sale financing for banks, lenders and merchants. The company's white-labeled Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) platform provides banks and lenders with state-of-the-art technology to easily deploy and scale their competitive consumer loan programs at any merchant's point of sale - online, in-store and via call center. With its multi-national presence, Jifiti provides end-to-end point-of-sale financing solutions to global brands in any international market. Jifiti works with leading financial institutions including Mastercard, Citizens Bank, CaixaBank, Credit Agricole, and retailers such as IKEA, Walmart and others worldwide.
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