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Assets, Business, Commodities, Financial, Financial Information, Financial Services, Investment, Money, Trading

Lefroy Hudson Forecast Crude Oil Price 2012

Lefroy Hudson revised higher its forecast for U.S. crude oil prices by $3 to $104 a barrel, citing the possibility of strong demand in the northern hemisphere winter, and left its Brent crude forecast unchanged at $116 a barrel.

“Global fundamentals and further monetary easing suggest upward pressure on oil prices. Given tightness in the distillate complex ahead of winter, gasoil-led rallies in crude are equally possible in the event of colder-than-average temperatures,” Lefroy Hudson’s analyst said in a note to their clients.

Brent crude oil prices are forecast to stay well above $100 a barrel, despite widespread expectations of an economic slowdown, a company poll said in late October.

U.S. crude was expected to average $92 a barrel next year and Brent was set to average $106.80 a barrel, the poll showed.

Brent crude was up $1.52 at $109.74 a barrel by 12:42 GMT on Friday after closing down $3.66 in the previous session.

Lefroy Hudson’s forecasts for 2012 implied the WTI-Brent spread would be $12 a barrel, slightly higher than the current level of around $9-$10.

“We believe that the extent of the Brent/WTI spread correction is overdone,” the Lefroy Hudson note said, citing the bullish impact for Brent of limited supplies of light, sweet oil.

lefroy Hudson’s analysts said it expects U.S. crude at around $105 a barrel in the first quarter of next year and $119 a barrel for Brent.

A modest start to the forecast period before oil prices regain strength.

We expect a somewhat weaker oil price trend in the first quarter of 2012. The Euro-area debt turmoil will continue to dampen risk appetite, while an improvement is expected in the supply/demand balance. Libyan oil will gradually return to the market, so other OPEC countries will have to scale back production to balance the market. This will improve OPEC’s reserve capacity.

From the second quarter of 2012 the balance in the oil market is likely to tighten again. Activity in the large oil-consuming countries will again accelerate. Growth in oil demand will again outstrip capacity expansion on the supply side. This will reduce OPEC’s capacity buffer. Tighter market conditions will lift oil prices and this trend is expected to strengthen towards the end of the forecast period. We have cut our oil price forecast to USD 130/barrel in 2012 from USD 135/barrel, but kept our forecast for 2013 unchanged at USD 140/barrel.

The risk of a sharp drop or abrupt upswing in oil prices has increased The risk is still high that we may experience a major downturn in the world economy or we see a new wave political unrest in vital oil producing countries. In our low price scenario we assume that a liquidity crisis and economic turmoil in Europe pushes the world into a new recession. In turn a sharp decline in economic activity will cut global oil demand significantly. Internal conflicts within OPEC hinder the cartel from imposing a coordinated cut in oil production and thereby trigger a drop in oil prices. In our high oil price scenario we assume that the political uprising spreads to Saudi Arabia and a significant share of the country’s oil production is locked in for a long period.

Via EPR Network
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Assets, Business, Commodities, Financial, Financial Information, Financial Services, Investment, Money, Trading

Lefroy Hudson Announces Timothy Daniels Election to the Company’s Board of Directors

Mr. Daniels served as President and CEO of Beijing Asset Management (BAM) for seven years and is serving as its Chair through this term. In his three decades of service at BAM, he has held numerous offices including Finance Head, Vice President, and President of Market Research. He lived in Europe, Asia and Australia during his extensive career. He has seen memberships with key government councils, most notably in areas of economic stimulus and planning.

Simon Lee Ngieu, President and CEO of Lefroy Hudson, said, “Timothy is a noteworthy and excellent addition to the Board as our pursuit of excellence in all our lines of business within a sustainable landscape continues. His management, planning acumen and economic expertise will be beneficial to the entire Lefroy Hudson family and clients.”

Julian Chaperon, Chairperson of the Board’s Committee on Nominations, said that they are “enchanted to welcome Mr. Daniels to the Board,” and that they “look forward to his contribution to the focus of keeping Lefroy Hudson on the forefront of continued success.”

Mr. Daniels, in his keynote speech, welcomes the opportunity to work with Lefroy Hudson, adding that “he is glad to be part of the winning team,” and that he hopes that his expertise would “be productive and harmonic with the tradition of leadership and excellence Lefroy Hudson.” Furthermore, he said that it is his aim to “keep Lefroy Hudson relevant in the larger business picture in the coming years,” and will “be hard at work to see that goal through fruition.”

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Mobile workforce solution provider ensures its services are on TAAP thanks to SecureTrading

TAAP, which helps organisations in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors save money and improve service through the latest mobile technology has chosen SecureTrading, the UK’s leading independent payment processor, to enable its clients to take payments using mobile devices. The solutions are used by a range of customers including charities such as Shelter to allow credit and debit card payments to be made via smartphones.

TAAP (The Agile Application Platform) is a sophisticated workflow system, which provides mobile workforce solutions and applications to organisations operating ‘in the field’. Using mobile devices pre-loaded with TAAP software, clients can receive, collect and transfer rich data from a PDA, smartphone or tablet to a secure web portal or back-office system in seconds. The systems are also scalable and flexible, making it easy to adapt to the most demanding environments from charities involved in face-to-face to fundraising to automotive clients delivering replacement vehicles and parts.

As with any transaction, data integrity is paramount and the solution’s software doesn’t save any of the credit card details so the transaction is fully secure and PCI compliant.

Angela Walker, Marketing Manager at TAAP, says: “SecureTrading’s products meet our business requirements and by offering an alternative payment method to cash, our clients have the opportunity to generate more income through cards and also improve cash flow as invoices do not need to be chased.”

Tim Allitt, Head of Sales & Marketing at SecureTrading, says, “Providing our clients with the facility to take payments via smartphones and PDAs is part of our ongoing mobile payment strategy. Indeed, the importance of mobile payments will become increasingly clear over the coming months and SecureTrading’s focus is on ensuring our gateway is accessible via whatever technology online retailers, merchants and partners want to employ.”

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Accounting, Assets, Business, Financial, Financial Services, Investment, M&A, Money

Anthony Citrolo Elected Executive Vice President & Director of The Long Island Chapter Of The Accountant/Attorney Networking Group Inc. (AANG)

It has been announced today that, Anthony Citrolo, CPA, CVA, CMAA, CBI has been elected as the 2012 Executive Vice President and Director of the Long Island Chapter of the Accountant/Attorneys Networking Group Inc. (AANG)

The Accountant/Attorney Networking Group is comprised solely of practicing accountants and practicing attorneys who service multiple clients. The purpose of the group is to facilitate networking between and among attorneys and accountants – two professions that have enormous synergy and potential for cross referrals. AANG offers 12 monthly networking breakfast meetings exclusively for accountants and attorneys. AANG also hosts two major networking cocktail receptions open to all professionals. The organizations’ web site is www.aangny.org

According to Mr. Citrolo a Managing Partner of M&A firm NYBB/Reliance Strategies, “the AANG creates a great platform for Accountants and Attorneys to meet and share information and ideas that can be used to bring cutting edge financial and legal solution to business owners or entrepreneurs engaged in a business sale or acquisition. Further Mr. Citrolo adds, “since Accountants and Attorneys are key players of the deal team that representbusiness buyers and sellers, the coordination of their efforts can result in lowering the fees incurred in the transaction and giving the deal the best chance of being consummated.”

About NYBB/Reliance

NYBB/Reliance Strategies is a full-service Merger & Acquisition firm in Melville, New York assisting companies with up to $50M in revenue to develop an exit strategy or make a targeted acquisition. In addition to M&A and consulting services, NYBB/Reliance offers valuation services in determining both Business and Transaction Values. Anthony can be reached at 631.390.9650 or anthony@nybbinc.com.

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APT Publish New Whitepaper on Risk Management

The technology firm APT have just published a new whitepaper. The paper discusses the issues associated with analysing risk in multi-asset class investments.

APT work to offer risk management solutions to investors, and have much experience behind them in doing so. They work with many different groups involved in investment, such as private wealth managers, hedge fund managers, brokers and others. They provide them with the kind of quality, evidence-based risk management they need. It is against this background that APT publishes this whitepaper, which looks at how investors working across multiple asset classes can best mitigate their risks. The paper is called ‘Building a Multi-Asset Class Model: the Commodities Example – Correlation is the Key’.

APT’s solution to the specific risks involved in multi-asset class investments is scenario-based risk management. Such products can help investors by offering them a solution based on thorough research, which responds clearly to events, and is flexible, to meet changing needs. APT recognise that markets will always undergo shocks and dislocations, and that this means that good risk management is important. Analysis of how and why these shocks happen helps to contribute to this risk management. This is APT’s approach: real research that looks at real research to help investors manage risks well. When looking at mulit-asset class investment, risk management needs to look at how the different asset classes may correlate, and also how to recognise that the management of risk is only really effective if separated from the attribution of risk.

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2012 Could be the Year for Umbrella Companies, Say Umbrella Company Tarpon

The recent news of an extra boost for the umbrella company industry, in the form of a £1 billion grant, could support half a million jobs.

The new year could be the year for umbrella companies as the industry is boosted by an extra £1 billion injection in the Regional Growth Fund (RGF), assigned to help 500,000 people find jobs in 2012. The decision to award the RGF with an extra £1 billion is not only going to be beneficial for workers, but also those in the umbrella company industry.

A spokesperson for Tarpon explains:

“The news that the RGF is going to benefit from extra money really is fantastic because it’ll help give the employment market a really great boost in time for 2012. The RGF is a two year fund that’s designed to support a number of projects and programmes that create economic growth and sustainable employment. So getting this extra money means that half a million people could potentially get a new job that could last them a very long time.”

The news of the extra money, which was delivered by the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, during a visit to the north-west of England earlier this month, has been welcomed by a number of industry insiders and job seekers alike. The focus of the fund will not only help get people into work, but also encourage private investment in the public sector. This is the second piece of good news for the umbrella company industry in as many months, as new figures from last month show that the demand for contractors has continued to rise.

A spokesperson for Tarpon continues:

“For every £1 of public money put into the RGF, the private sector will put in £5, which will help jump start growth across the UK. This, coupled with the news that the number of employers that have taken on contractors has grown for the 28th consecutive month in November, means that we anticipate that 2012 is the year for the umbrella company.”

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Bonds, Business, Financial, Financial Information, Financial Services, Investment, Money, Stocks, Trading

TOMEX Launches New and Direct Spread Contract

TOMEX, one of the world’s leading trading companies has recently launched a new direct spread contract that will allow its members to manage the difference between spot contracts. This new contract will give members of Tokyo Mercantile Exchange more options when it comes to trading, which is also in direct response to their unified requests.

This gives both industrial and financial institutions another method to hedge the liquidity in the spot markets. Doing a direct spread contract is simple as you make one singular trade which is then automatically divided into a singular trade and a single delivery. On the other hand, even if two separate trades are physically created a trader or member will only be paying for the difference between the two contracts.

Jefferson Harold, CEO of Tokyo Mercantile TOMEX recently said, “This new and improved contract was created as a direct answer to the requests of our clients and members for more financial products. On the plus side, it also serves as an additional way to help other companies make full use of their asset management.” This will further expand its suite of investor relations and intelligence services for advisory companies and their individual and institutional clients.

The new contracts will offer for companies trading on behalf of institutional clients on Tokyo Mercantile Exchange access to an bundle of individually-packaged intelligence services powered websites and other sophisticated tools. The recent announcement is a branch of the TOMEX’s access centres for the market’s most comprehensive investor relations, as well as market intelligence service for companies trading on TOMEX.

These arrangements are an indication of our client focus and dedication to give top services for our trading companies,” said Tokubey Ito, Vice President of Tokyo Mercantile Exchane.“We are pleased that TOMEX, one of the world’s leading TOMEX groups, has decided to work with us in its continued support of TOMEX-listed companies,” said Mark Kevins, the President and COO of INTELLIGENCE SERVICES COMPANY. “We are very confident that through this partnership, in addition to the TOMEX access centre, TOMEX-listed firms will receive a level of market insight never before available.”

“Especially in this current state of the economy, professionals need intelligent information, strong analytics and advanced tools that provide greater transparency into the evolving markets. We are more than happy to give TOMEX trading companies with the answers they need to effectively manage investors”, completed Mr. Ito.

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TOMEX Announces Changes in Credit Brokerage Management Team

TOMEX, a leading operator of regulated futures exchanges, clearing houses and over-the-counter markets, announced changes to the management team within its Credit Tomex dervivatives sector. Wholy owned by TOMEX, Credit Tomex is one of the most promising platforms for default swaps and derivatives credit.

TOMEX appointed Arata Haruka as President. Mr. Haruka was previously the Managing Director at Credit Tomex where he was in charge for several years. Mr. Arata Haruka will replace Umetaro Hakaru, Chief Executive Officer of Credit Tomex, who is now pursuing other opportunities. Mr. Umetaro Hakaru played a key role in building Credit Tomex and in facilitating its integration into Tokyo Mercantile Exchange Trading Platforms. TOMEX has also appointed Jefferson Harold as Chief Operating Officer of Credit Tomex. Mr. Jefferson Harold joined Credit Tomex a few years back as the Financial Officer and played an instrumental role in creating synergies between Credit Tomex and TOMEX Trading Platforms.

Hisao Yamada, the Senior Vice President who co-created Credit Tomex a decade and served as its C.O.O to TOMEX last year will also be in charge of the Marketing Department of Credit Tomex and also will remain as an advisor to TOMEX Board of Directors. Since the inception of Credit Tomex recently, he has been instrumental in the integration of Credit Tomex into the organization and in the execution of TOMEX strategies.

TOMEX CEO, Jefferson Harold, said: “We are more than happy to elevate the new management as key contributors in our business. Based on our successful partnership in supporting the evolution the credit default swap space, I want to thank the whole management team for their help with our achievements over the past years. This industry insights have been extremely important as TOMEX has established its leadership position in the credit default swap markets. On behalf of the entire TOMEX team, I want to explicitly state our appreciation to the whole of the management team for their efforts in integrating Credit TOMEX business.”

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TOMEX Announces the Launch of Long-Term Bond Futures for Clients

Tokyo Mercantile Exchange, one of the industry’s biggest and most diverse futures marketplace recently announced the launch of long-term futures beginning this year. These contracts will be part of and subject to the regulations and laws of the industry authorities. It will also be approved pending the board’s ruling.

“The long-term futures has now become part of TOMEX’s product listing as part of our response to overwhelming customer demands and requests for a contract that is similar to this one that we have launched,” said Tokubey Ito, TOMEX Director and Vice President of Consumer Affairs. “This new contract will complement our remaining products and allow us to grow the range of services as well as trading opportunities for industry participants and our clientele.”

Derivatives that are redeemable for the new long-term futures contracts will consist of cash bonds with at least 25 years of remaining term to maturity. By comparing them, redeemable derivatives for the existing bonds contract are bonds with remaining terms to maturity of 15 years or more. There is a rather vast difference between the two that clients will be able to choose depending on what they prefer. The recent policy shift towards greater issuance of long-term bonds has enabled Tokyo Mercantile Exchange to launch this contract targeted at this important part of the yield curve.

In all other aspects the specifications for the bond futures have seen close resemblance with those that are in the existing treasury bond contract. They are similar in terms of their value, low tick size, contract critical dates, and coupon. Initially, TOMEX will list three delivery months in the bond futures, beginning with mid 2012. There will be no notable differences or adjustments to the currently listed treasury bond futures contract specifications and requirements. Additional information about futures, other trading products and TOMEX’s other interests can be found at www.tomex.jp.

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Emeraldstone Investments Has Completed Purchase Of Colombian Emerald Mining Enterprise

The Cyprus based Emeraldstone Investments Limited has bought a company in Colombia that operates with emerald mining. The merger deal that has been preparing for several months was finally finished.

The contract that is considered to become the new step for Emeraldstone Investments Limited and draw the company to a new level of business that would include global market of precious stones.

The Colombian enterprise CEO, Leo Gransesa comments on the situation: “This deal was a great success for both companies. Our enterprise has been preparing for the merge before. However, the proposition made by Emeraldstone Investments Limited was better than we could ever hope. I’m glad that the business is in the right hands now. One of the most important results of this deal was the fact that Emeraldstone is going to keep the job for all our employees”.

Marvin Tillman, the Head of Emeraldstone Investments board also comments on the deal: “All primary conditions of the contract were followed. We have purchased the majority stake which makes 75% of the total number of shares. The enterprise keeps its management and working staff though the top management would be transferred from the head office of Emeraldstone”.

As a result this turned out to be one of the deals that makes both parties benefit from it tremendously. The representatives of both US and Colombia sides celebrate the biggest deal of the year in the field of gemstone investment.

Regarding this fact Emeraldstone is going to introduce new investment plans for its most regular investors and special offer for brand-new clients. New introductions are to be presented within a month from the date of signing the contract and should make a great contribution to world economy recovering.

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Saxo Bank And ICAP Shipping Involved In World’s First Electronic Container Freight Swap Settled In USD

Saxo Bank, the trading and investment specialist, and ICAP Shipping, the shipping arm of ICAP plc, announced on Thursday that they were involved in the execution of the world’s first electronic, voice-assisted trade of a container freight swap agreement settled in US dollars.

The counterparties to the trade were Saxo Bank in Denmark as the buyer and a Netherlands-based trading house as the seller. ICAP Shipping was the broker of the trade. The container freight swap agreement was executed on ICAP’s Webtrader platform, with manual input from ICAP Shipping brokers and cleared by LCH.Clearnet.

The trade was executed by rugby star Lawrence Dallaglio during ICAP’s 19th annual Charity Day. On ICAP Charity, all ICAP revenues are donated to a selection of 200 charities and celebrity patrons are invited to help close deals. Mr. Dallaglio attended ICAP Charity Day in support of Cancer Research and Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Container freight swap agreements lock in the freight exposure for standard containers transported from Asia to Europe, Mediterranean countries and the United States. Cash flow for this sort of freight exposure has been unpredictable for retailers, importers and logistic companies in the past and the concept of pricing container freight against indices and using swap agreements to manage the risk has attracted many industry participants over the last year. Screen execution with the added surety of voice broker assistance was a key requirement of customers.

Henry Liddell, CEO ICAP Shipping said: “The execution of the world’s first electronic container freight swap agreement is an important milestone in the on-going development of the container swaps market. This youngest segment in the shipping industry has seen a rapid growth over the last decade and will become an even more important risk management tool in the current economic environment. Container swaps are a hedging tool for the container industry to manage the price volatility of the physical market.”

Johan Gade, Freight & OTC Derivatives, Saxo Bank said: “We fully support electronic freight derivatives trading and believe that going forward container swaps will be a valuable addition to the electronic dry bulk and tanker freight derivatives offering we are about to launch.”

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Saxo Bank Comments On Eurozone Sitation Ahead Of EU Leaders Summit

Saxo Bank has released a new macro view video with Steen Jakobsen, Chief Economist, commenting on the situation for the Eurozone ahead of the EU leaders’ summit and in light of the major global central banks’ intervention to boost liquidity. The concerted central bank action has effectively resulted in the US printing money for Europe seeing as the European Central Bank will not, says Steen, adding that it’s like flying in a jet with one engine only – hardly a safe scenario.

The surprising joint intervention by the world’s largest central banks to make it cheaper for financial institutions outside America to borrow dollars has had a positive effect on risk sentiment, but is not expected to last long. For an extended rally or to just sustain gains something more needs to be put on the table, like better fundamentals, plus structural changes and real commitments to toing the line in Eurozone nations, says Steen. The reason being that the severe solvency issues in Europe and deep rooted growth problems are still very much plaguing outlooks.

One could argue that with the central banks having joined forces the pressure is now more so on European politicians to implement lasting austerity and commit to cleaning up their backyards and follow standard rules. The question is whether EU leaders will be able to set things straight once and for all when they meet for the seventeenth time to solve the issues. Steen remains doubtful.

In the meantime, the central bank action has resulted in the cost of emergency dollar funding being cheaper for European banks than US banks. Therefore there is increased expectation now that the Federal Reserve will lower its discount rate by at least 25 basis points before the new dollar swap rate kicks in on December 5. A deeper cut is also possible, he says but that would mean the Federal Reserve is virtually letting go and committing to printing money forever.

Steen also commented on the global macro situation, in particular China, following the Reserve Requirement Ratio cut amid a slowing growth scenario and in terms of timing in a global context. Meanwhile US data continues to please for now at least but he warns that the better numbers may be petering out.

The full video can be viewed at http://www.tradingfloor.com/blogs/macro-ad-hoc/global-central-bank-action-puts-heat-on-eu-summit-to-deliver-886705704.

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Saxo Bank Releases New Asia Focus Video

Saxo Bank, the online trading specialist, has released a new Asia Focus Video which features Andrew Robinson, Forex Analyst for Saxo Capital Markets in Singapore, analysing the People’s Bank of China’s decision to lower its reserve requirement ratio, whether it’s a taste of more cuts to come and how much it is a clear signal that the world’s second-largest economy is really slowing after all.

The unexpected People’s Bank of China’s announcement that it will lower its reserve requirement ratio on December 5, representing the first cut in three years, initially surprised markets and started a risk-on sentiment, particularly in equities and incited market hunger for more monetary easing.

As such, reserve requirement ratio cuts rarely come in isolation and more are likely soon, probably as early as next month, confirmed Andrew Robinson, FX Analyst, Saxo Capital Markets. He said the timing of this easing has to do with the flow of data of late which has pointed to a slowing in the economy and that it was acknowledgement of this situation. Furthermore it pre-empted the latest purchasing manager index data which confirmed a contraction scenario for the economy.

Commenting on the recent data from China, Andrew said: “Last month’s data was looking particularly soft and the expectations for this month are not particularly encouraging. If we look at the data that’s been coming out recently, it’s certainly suggesting that the market is slowing down.

“I think this is a pre-emptive move by the PBOC and they’re looking to continue it and build the economy.”

The focus in the coming days will now shift to inflation data with more declines in the consumer price index and an even greater drop in the purchasing prices index seen. Combined, this confirmation of a softening in price pressure effectively removes a hurdle the People’s Bank of China was facing in terms of the freedom to continue to ease monetary policy.

The video can be viewed at http://www.tradingfloor.com/blogs/macro-ad-hoc/more-chinese-easing-as-price-pressure-abates-removing-pboc-hurdle-1126984016, with many other forex videos available on the Saxo Bank site.

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PCI-PAL And SecureTrading Pal Up To Enhance Call Centre Payment Security

PCI-PAL, a market leading contact centre solution has entered into a partnership with SecureTrading, the UK’s leading independent payment processor specialist, to allow call centre agents to take card payments safely and securely.

The solution de-scopes the call centre PCI risk by permitting callers to enter sensitive credit card data using their telephone keypad whilst remaining in conversation with the call centre agent at all times. The encrypted card holder data is sent securely to SecureTrading’s PCI-DSS Level 1 infrastructure.

PCI compliance for contact centres is an on-going process. It is time-consuming and costly and if not obtained, it can lead to data security breaches which may result in significant reputation and financial loss for organisations. PCI-PAL allows businesses to overcome this challenging area of compliance by restricting sensitive card data from entering organisations’ premises and networks, which bears significant cost savings for the call centres.

Both PCI-PAL, which is a division of IPPlus PLC Group, and SecureTrading have large client bases which affords a mutually beneficial business relationship. PCI-PAL hopes to add real value by utilising their bulk buying power to allow customers to access SecureTrading’s extremely competitive rates, as well as high levels of customer service.

William Catchpole, CEO at PCI-PAL comments: “We are very excited about the prospect of working with SecureTrading for PCI-PAL. The need for contact centres to achieve PCI compliance is a challenge faced by operations and technical teams across the sectors. Together we can supply a simple customer and agent friendly data gathering service with secure, competitive payment processing.”

Tim Allitt, Head of Sales & Marketing at SecureTrading, comments: “It is always satisfying to work with a business that shares our passion for customer service and technical innovation. We look forward to working with PCI-PAL over the coming months as they seek to enhance their clients’ customer experience through reduced PCI costs and increased customer service.”

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APT from SunGard – Top Choice For Risk Management

The APT solution from SunGard is proving to be an invaluable product for risk management companies.

Neptune Investment Managers, a company recently named Best Boutique Fund Group at the 21st annual Money Marketing Financial Services Awards, have chosen to use Sungard’s APT across their funds. Neptune currently has over £7 billion assets under management.

Gavin Creary, risk officer at Neptune Investment Management, said, “The integration of APT is designed to augment our risk management processes and will help add significant value company-wide.”

APT will be used across Neptune’s UCITS funds. “UCITS is fast becoming a global regulatory standard,” said Dushyant Shahrawat, senior research director at TowerGroup, a Corporate Executive Board company. “As organizations try to mitigate risk, investors value the transparency UCITS offers as risk reporting has become an important compliance mandate for investment managers.”

APT is an alternative investment solution offering flexible risk reporting, portfolio construction and rebalancing via optimization, and related professional services.

Rob Mackay, chief operating officer of SunGard’s APT business unit, said, “APT will help Neptune’s fund managers gain a clear perspective on the drivers of risk and return. APT’s flexible analytics are easily integrated into Neptune’s existing infrastructure, helping it benefit from robust risk management and risk reporting.”

APT serves more than 200 asset managers, hedge funds, private banks, prime brokers, pension funds, funds of funds, wealth management groups, consultants, administrators and custodians globally. APT is a data-rich solution meaning that customer data requirements are minimised. It also offers the widest range of global multi-asset class coverage.

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Atos And Travelex Strengthen Partnership With Major New Contract

Atos, the international IT services company, has announced that it has signed a major five year contract with Travelex, the world’s leading specialist provider of foreign exchange and international payments for consumer and business customers.

Under the five year agreement Travelex and Atos Worldline, which represents Atos’s high-tech transactional services, will collaborate to provide enhanced cross-border card payment capabilities.

The partnership will allow shoppers at over 72,000 point of sale machines in Atos Worldline’s participating merchant network in Europe to pay in their preferred currency. Travelex Currency Select enables acquirers to provide shoppers with transparency, certainty and choice at the point of sale.

Atos Worldline has global experience in providing merchant acquirers with payment solutions. Travelex also effectively operates as an acquirer in its own right with its global ATM network as well as its own “direct-to-market” merchant acquiring business.

Atos believes that this expertise in foreign exchange complements Atos Worldline’s position as a leading commercial acquirer in Europe with a significant merchant portfolio, especially in the Benelux region.

Atos Worldline and Travelex plan to deploy the cross-border card payment functionality solution on card-present (POS) and card-not-present e-Commerce channels to European merchants in 2012.

Commenting on this announcement, Peter Jackson, Chief Executive Officer of Travelex said: “This deal demonstrates our ability to develop and deploy innovative foreign exchange payment solutions in growth market segments that are outside our traditional retail sphere. Atos Worldline is the ideal partner with deep expertise in card acceptance solutions and payments in general. We look forward to growing our joint business together.”

Joe Edwards, Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing, Atos said: “Through our partnership with Travelex, we can provide them with our specialist expertise in electronic transactions, which is essential to the growth of their business. We already have a very solid relationship with Travelex by supporting their e-commerce strategy, and we are looking forward to cementing this relationship further.”

Earlier this year, Atos and Travelex further extended their relationship via a Systems integration (SI) agreement. Atos has been a key supplier of IT solutions and services to Travelex for some years and continues to provide support and delivery capabilities across the Travelex IT estate.

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Saxo Bank Enables Online Islamic Trading

Saxo Bank A/S, the online trading and investment specialist, has enabled its clients to identify and trade Islamic compliant stocks and ETFs on more than 25 exchanges worldwide. The Bank selected IdealRatings Inc., a leading global Islamic compliant fund management service provider, as the most reliable source for identifying Islamic compliant instruments globally.

The compliance reasoning is based on commonly accepted and transparent Islamic guidelines defined by IdealRatings and Shariah Review Bureau with operations in Jeddah, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and Manama. More than 12,000 stocks and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are screened and researched on a monthly basis by IdealRatings.

Jakob Beck Thomsen, Regional head of Middle East and CEO Saxo Bank (Dubai) Ltd., said: “Islamic finance is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world today and we are excited to enable our clients to identify and trade Islamic compliant stocks online. IdealRatings is the industry’s most trusted brand for identifying and researching Islamic compliant stocks and we are confident in offering their data to our clients.”

Mohamed Donia, CEO of IdealRatings, added: “Saxo Bank A/S has always been an innovator and market leader in providing its clients with quality financial services and we are delighted to partner with them to provide this reliable information for their discerning investors.”

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The Choice Of His Broker Binary Options

The choice of his broker of binary options can sometimes be very complex, especially if we begin and if we do not still know the world of the on-line investment. The strategie-binaires.com site helps you to make the best choice.

Before beginning to trade by means of the binary options, it will be necessary for you to pass by an indispensable stage, the choice of your broker or on-line broker. Now, the brokers proposing this type of investment being more and more numerous on internet, the choice can sometimes turn out complicated, especially when we begin. It is then to help you to make the best possible choice that the strategy-options.com site decided to help you by explaining to you what are elements important to compare between each of the offers. Know besides that strategy-options.com also realized a comparative degree of the main brokers with for each of them precise explanations regarding their advantages and inconveniences.

In the meantime, here are some rules simple to apply during the choice of your partner broker of binary options:

The general characteristics of the brokers of binary options:

Before interesting us in the technical details, it is essential to have a particular attention on the general characteristics proposed by the broker whom you will choose.

According to your budget, you will also have to look at the conditions of deposits and at the minimum amount asked for each of the proposed options. Useless indeed to ruin you in a single investment there where other brokers will ask you for a less important amount of transaction. Once this detected information, you can also take into account offers of welcome proposed by the quasi-totality of the on-line brokers. These offers can take various forms (bonus of deposit, refund of the losses) and asks an in-depth study to determine which one is the most interesting. For that purpose, consult the present general conditions on the concerned sites. Do not also forget to verify expenses connected to the cash withdrawal and the extensions announced in this direction.

Finally, to guarantee you a legal resort in case of dispute, think of choosing only the brokers being approved by the European authorities in on-line investment and in brokerage.

The technical characteristics to be verified:

Once the general characteristics were studied and the best offers were brought out of the lot, you can proceed to a study of the technical constituents of each of the brokers. For that purpose, you have to know the main platforms of trading proposed on the market or inquire with the broker when this one developed only the technical solution. Among platforms the most spread on the market, we find very qualitative Metatrader who offers possibilities of evolution and very interesting programming for little that we are able of establishing complex strategies.

In every case, opt even there for a platform completely translated or developed in English to guarantee you an optimal use of each of the given tools.

Concerning these tools, their number and their quality also varies from a platform to the other one. To know which one of these platforms will offer you the services which you really need, think of determining in advance a list of indicators which seem to you essential in good investments. Useless indeed to block you of superfluous tools which will finally return your transactions less intuitive and more complex, especially if you are novices in trading. Before choosing a broker of binary options, think of testing systematically their platform thanks to the accounts of demonstration.

To know the main brokers of the market and their advantages and inconveniences, consult our evaluations on www.strategy-options.com.

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Saxo Bank Receives Best Active Trading Tools Award At Shares Awards

Saxo Bank, online trading and investment specialist, has won the award for ‘Best Active Trading Tools’ at the annual Shares awards in London.

The Shares awards aim to recognise those organizations providing both innovative and high quality of service to the world of retail investment. The awards provide a platform for traders and investors to voice who are the best in the business.

Henrik Dyrholm Holst, Head of Platform Management at Saxo Bank, commented on the win: “Saxo Bank is proud to have been awarded for providing the industry’s leading trading tools. Saxo Bank is renowned for our online forex trading but SaxoTrader is a multi-product trading platform offering clients a wide range of opportunities to trade the world’s capital markets, from FX Options and Futures to CFDs on stocks, indices and commodities as well as popular investment products such as Stocks, Bonds and ETFs. We have continuously focus on making the trading experience for all types of traders as positive and intuitive as possible, and clearly guide users through the broad range of features on the platform. In 2011 we have also upgraded the platform with winners/losers stock in intraday real-time across all 23 stock exchanges covered by Saxo Bank. In addition, we continue our investment in optimizing and adding new trading tools and are happy to announce the imminent launch of our cutting edge trading apps for both Android and iPhone.”

Saxo Bank’s trading platforms have defined the company’s success in the online trading space for over a decade. Since introducing the SaxoTrader in 1998, Saxo Bank has enhanced and improved its platforms to meet the evolving needs of forex traders and investors in a continuously changing industry.

Shares is the leading weekly publication for stock market professionals and private investors and as such is read weekly by thousands of analysts, fund managers, stockbrokers, company directors and private investors. The Shares’ team of expert writers is highly regarded in the City and their comment frequently influences the market’s view of individual companies and their underlying share price. The magazine’s easy-to-read style and depth of analysis has made it the indispensable weekly read for those actively investing in the UK stock market today.

A full list of awards can be found at http://www.sharesawards.co.uk/awards/.

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