Our FinTech roundup also covers Bloomberg’s new index, Pagaya’s expansion, and the elevated partnership between NICE Actimize and Infosys.
DBS Also Confirms No-Layoffs Policy
The DBS banking group in Asia has just announced that it will be hiring more than 2,000 people in Singapore in 2020, a commitment “to creating and protecting jobs amid pandemic,” officials say.
“The announcement follows an earlier pledge by the bank that it will protect the livelihoods of its 12,000-strong workforce in Singapore,” according to the firm’s announcement. “The bank has reassured staff that there will be no layoffs.”
The financial services group will be filling more than 1,000 new roles, including “mix of roles of fresh graduates and more seasoned professionals,” officials add.
The new roles will be in line with the DBS digitalization efforts, and more than “one-third or over 360 jobs are for seasoned professionals in growth technology areas … UX/UI, data science, fraud detection compliance, as well as consumer and institutional banking technology,” according to DBS.
DBS officials are also looking to “train and hire over 60 people in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, full stack development and data analytics through a range of specialized talent development programs, namely the Technology in Finance Immersion Program (TFIP) and the TechSkills Accelerator (TeSA) Mid-Career Advance, respectively,” officials say.
DBS has also said that it is recruiting to fill more than 700 positions with “young talent” for: specialized graduate associate programs; an applied wealth management track; the DBS’ Analytics Capability Enhancement Program and Executive Management Associate Program; the Skill Enhancement Education and Development (SEED) program, supported by TeSA, for development, DevOps and cybersecurity.
Bloomberg Launches Centralized Multi-Asset Index Suite
Market data, news and trading systems giant Bloomberg has launched the Bloomberg U.S. Multi-Asset Indices, which includes the vendor’s indices across major asset classes with each index constructed as a composite of at least one fixed income and one equity index, according to the vendor.
“The suite is designed to address investor demand for a centralized multi-asset index suite, with products that can be formally benchmarked, as the investing strategy continues to gain momentum,” officials say.
“Building on Bloomberg’s single asset indices as the foundation, the suite of 10 indices features fixed, market value and risk parity weighting schemes in order to provide various risk and return exposure,” Bloomberg adds.
Pagaya Expands to the U.S. West Coast
Jason Hass
Pagaya, an asset manager startup known for using artificial intelligence (A.I.) technologies, reports that it has expanded into the U.S. West Coast with the appointments of Jason Hass as senior vice president of originations, based in Phoenix, Ariz., and Mike Cannatella as a vice president of originations, based in Los Angeles.
Hass and Cannatella are part of Pagaya’s originations group, along with Theo Ellis who came on board in the fall of 2019 as a vice president of originations for the firm, officials say. Ellis, who will oversee project management, joined from the software startup he co-founded, Riveted Labs. Ellis has also been a vice president at PIMCO, advising institutional asset allocators.
Hass has held senior positions at several fintech firms such as Credit Karma, TrueAccord, and Aire Labs in the United Kingdom, officials say. His fintech experience spans business development and leadership, partnerships, operations, and law. He will oversee Pagaya’s strategic partnership initiatives.
Mike Cannatella
Cannatella began his career at Moody’s Analytics where he specialized in credit risk models, officials say. He later managed business development at Finsight before joining Pagaya. Cannatella will be responsible for sourcing and managing Pagaya’s partners.
The originations group is led by Benjamin Blatt, Pagaya’s head of capital markets and originations, officials say. The group identifies and establishes asset acquisition channels and strategic partnerships with a focus on consumer industries.
Pagaya uses artificial intelligence technologies to analyze “millions of data points to select and purchase individual loans instead of securitizing a pool of previously assembled assets. The firm has closed six securitizations in the past year, all of which are actively managed by its A.I.,” officials say.
NICE Actimize and Infosys Elevate Partnership
NICE Actimize, a financial crime management vendor, and Infosys, an IT outsourcer, have expanded their strategic collaboration so that Infosys can resell NICE’s software solutions via the cloud or for on-premise deployments, officials say.
NICE Actimize and Infosys will offer regulatory and compliance solutions and services via the “Infosys Actimize Digital Suite,” which the vendors say is “a set of accelerators designed for faster time to market and predictability in implementation.” The combination with a cloud offering is intended to help users reduce cost of ownership, and reduce vendor management efforts.
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