Day: September 20, 2022

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Nasdaq Establishes New Digital Assets Business

Underpins Nasdaq’s Focus on Advancing the Transformation of Markets and Driving Broader Institutional Adoption of Digital Assets

Subject to Regulatory Approval, Nasdaq Digital Assets Will Provide a Proprietary Custody Solution with Liquidity and Execution Services for Financial Institutions

Appoints Ira Auerbach, Former Global Head of Gemini Prime, to Lead New Business

Expands Anti-Financial Crime Technology Capabilities for Digital Assets

NEW YORK, Sept. 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ) today announced the launch of “Nasdaq Digital Assets,” a new business that will power the digital asset ecosystem. The launch underpins Nasdaq’s ambition to advance and help facilitate broader institutional participation in digital assets by providing trusted and institutional-grade solutions, focused on enhanced custody, liquidity and integrity.

“Nasdaq Digital Assets builds upon the successful solutions we have introduced in recent years to serve the digital assets ecosystem, including marketplace technology for digital asset exchanges, crypto-native anti-financial crime offerings, and crypto-related index solutions for tradable products,” said Adena Friedman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Nasdaq. “The technology that underpins the digital asset ecosystem has the potential to transform markets over the long-term. To deliver on that opportunity, our focus will be to provide institutional-grade solutions that bring greater liquidity, integrity, and transparency to support the evolution.”

Nasdaq Digital Assets will initially develop an advanced custody solution that will incorporate liquidity and execution services to address industry challenges around connectivity, availability, and efficiency. Nasdaq’s custody solution will bring together the best attributes of hot and cold crypto wallets through an innovative technology offering, which will provide a high degree of accessibility and scalability without compromising security. Nasdaq’s offering is subject to regulatory approval in applicable jurisdictions.

“Demand among institutional investors for engaging in digital assets has increased in recent years, and Nasdaq is well-positioned to accelerate broader adoption and drive sustainable growth,” said Tal Cohen, Executive Vice President and Head of North American Markets, Nasdaq. “With our trusted brand and strong track record as a technology provider for the global capital markets, Nasdaq is uniquely placed to address industry pain points by improving liquidity, scalability, and resiliency, with the goal to engender greater trust and confidence in the digital assets ecosystem.”

Nasdaq Digital Assets will be led by Ira Auerbach, Senior Vice President, Head of Digital Assets, who will oversee the team’s strategic roadmap, growth targets, and product development. Auerbach brings over a decade of leadership experience in building institutional-grade solutions and innovative services across digital assets and traditional finance. Auerbach joined Nasdaq from Gemini, where he held several executive positions across product, business development, and trading. Most recently he was the Global Head of Gemini Prime, the crypto platform’s prime brokerage services. He reports to Tal Cohen, Executive Vice President, North American Markets.

Nasdaq Expands Anti-Financial Crime Technology Capabilities for Digital Assets

The integrity of the digital landscape is key to realizing the full potential of digital assets. Yet, cryptocurrency-based money laundering activity reached $8.6 billion in 2021, a 30% increase from 2020.1

To play a central role in combatting the rising threat of financial crime across the digital assets financial landscape, Nasdaq has expanded its anti-financial crime technology with new capabilities and coverage for the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Through its Verafin and Surveillance product offerings, Nasdaq has launched a comprehensive suite of crypto-specific detection capabilities to effectively mitigate risks and provide continuous monitoring of anti-money laundering, fraud detection, and market abuse across traditional and digital assets, fiat and crypto, and on- and off-chain activities.

“Our expanded suite of anti-financial crime solutions reinforces our commitment to protecting the integrity of the financial system,” said Jamie King, Executive Vice President, Head of Anti-Financial Crime, Nasdaq. “As the world of digital assets evolves and converges with traditional finance, it is crucial to provide the necessary portfolio of technology solutions designed to safeguard participants across the financial ecosystem.”

About Nasdaq
Nasdaq (Nasdaq: NDAQ) is a global technology company serving the capital markets and other industries. Our diverse offering of data, analytics, software, and services enables clients to optimize and execute their business vision with confidence. To learn more about the company, technology solutions and career opportunities, visit us on LinkedIn, on Twitter @Nasdaq, or at www.nasdaq.com.

Nasdaq Media Contact:
Emily Pan
+1 (646) 637-3964
Emily.Pan@nasdaq.com

Nasdaq Investor Contact:
Ed Ditmire, CFA
+1 (212) 401-8737
ed.ditmire@nasdaq.com

1 The Chainalysis 2022 Crypto Crime Report https://go.chainalysis.com/2022-Crypto-Crime-Report.html

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Distinguished Board Director and Former Fortune 100 CIO, Annabelle Bexiga Joins Quantexa Board of Directors

LONDON, Sept. 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today Quantexa, a global leader in Decision Intelligence (DI) solutions for the public and private sectors, announced that Annabelle Bexiga is joining their board of directors. Annabelle is currently serving as the non-executive director for DWS Group, Stonex Group (SNEX), and Triton International (TRTN). Prior to her current roles, she served as the CIO Advisor at Zoom with a focus on working with their product development and marketing teams. She also established and chaired Zoom’s Financial Services Industry council.

Annabelle has 30 years of experience in the financial services industry and 11 years in Fortune-100 CIO roles. As a Board Director, Annabelle brings to Quantexa her operational knowledge, as well as public, private, and non-profit board leadership, and advisement experience.

“This incredible journey of continuous learning from brilliant technologists and courageous leaders continues through my board and advisory work,” said Annabelle. “I am especially excited to join the board of Quantexa because they truly understand that today in the face of rapidly changing conditions, enterprises need to drive greater accuracy in decisions and innovation with data and analytics technology at the core. The Quantexa team are working to help organizations solve today’s major challenges in utilizing data effectively to improve their operations and the services they provide to their customers.”

“Annabelle’s background includes a diverse set of businesses at firms such as JPMorgan Chase, Zoom, and AIG, as well as residential global experience in New York, Singapore, Tokyo, and Boston,” said Vishal Marria, CEO at Quantexa. “Annabelle has made a fantastic contribution to Quantexa over the last 2 years working as an advisor to our business, so we are thrilled that she will be joining our board of directors. Her experience aligns well with our goals, our culture, and we look forward to incorporating her expertise to help our customers use their data at scale to unify their data, manage risk, ensure compliance, and identify opportunities for efficiency.”

ABOUT QUANTEXA
Quantexa is a global data and analytics software company pioneering Contextual Decision Intelligence that empowers organizations to make trusted operational decisions by making data meaningful. Using the latest advancements in big data and AI, Quantexa’s platform uncovers hidden risk and new opportunities by providing a contextual, connected view of internal and external data in a single place. It solves major challenges across data management, KYC, customer intelligence, financial crime, risk, fraud, and security, throughout the customer lifecycle.

The Quantexa Contextual Decision Intelligence Platform enhances operational performance with over 90% more accuracy and 60 times faster analytical model resolution than traditional approaches. Founded in 2016, Quantexa now has more than 500 employees and thousands of users working with billions of transactions and data points across the world. The company has offices in London, New York, Boston, Washington DC, Brussels, Toronto, Singapore, Melbourne, and Sydney. For more information, contact Quantexa here or follow us on LinkedIn.


Media Inquiries:

C: Laurel Case, VP, Fight or Flight

T: +1 315 663 6780

E: Quantexa@fightflight.co.uk


C: Adam Jaffe, SVP of Corporate Marketing
T: +1 609 502 6889
E: adamjaffe@quantexa.com
– or –
RapidResponse@quantexa.com
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57 new Covid-19 cases announced and 1 dead

Laos has reported 57 new daily Covid-19 cases and one dead over the past 24 hours with the total caseload reaching 215,505 and total 665 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health today.
Vientiane recorded the highest numbers of Covid-19 infections at 34, followed by Champassack 6, Vientiane province 4, Xayaboury 4, Savannakhet 4, Huaphan 2, Luang Prabang 2, Oudomxay 1 and Saravane 1.

Source: Lao News Agency

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Unexploded Ordnance Sector Working Group meeting held

The Sector Working Group (SWG) meetings provide an inclusive forum for discussing and exchanging views on the implementation of the Round Table Meeting recommendations. As such, on Friday, September 16th 2022, the first Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) SWG of the year was held in Vientiane Capital.
The meeting was chaired by Padeumphone Sonthany, Vice Minister of Labour and Social Welfare (MoLSW) and Vice Chairperson of the National Regulatory Authority for the UXO/Mine Action Sector in the Lao PDR (NRA), and co-chaired by Ms. Catherine Phuong, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Deputy Resident Representative and Officer in charge, and Peter Haymond, United States Ambassador to the Lao PDR. Also in attendance were Embassy representatives, Ministry officials, UXO operators and other UXO stakeholders.
Sonthany welcomed participants and shared that “The SWG meeting is important because the findings and discussion from the meeting will guide the implementations of the ten-year UXO sector strategy entitled Safe Path Forward III (SPF III) and the 9th National Socio-Economic Development Plan (NSEDP) that contribute to the Lao PDR’s accomplishment of Sustainable Development Goal 18. Lives Safe from UXO”
After the opening session, the NRA shared the UXO sector’s achievements and lessons learnt from implementing the sector activities for the 9 months achievement in 2022 and priorities for the next three months. The meeting acknowledged the record outputs, survey and clearance statistics in 2021 which has proven to be the most productive year so far. Indeed, according to the Sector Annual Report 2021, the UXO sector has cleared more land than ever of explosive ordnance and increased quantities of ordnance were removed.
Mr. Chomyaeng Phengthongsawat, Director-General of the NRA, reported on the launch of SPFIII (2021-2030), and on the Prime Minister’s Decree on UXO/Mine Action. Both documents will contribute to the Government of Lao’s compliance with the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM).
Further, the meeting discussed the sector’s financing modality to achieve SDG 18. Participants reaffirmed the sector-wide consensus on the need to strengthen the linkage between the UXO sector’s activities and sustainable development of the Lao PDR.
The chair and co-chairs reiterated the importance of international cooperation and coordination for the UXO sector to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of UXO/Mine action for the benefit of the Lao people.
Ms. Phuong from UNDP noted that in order to support impacted communities and maximize investment in the sector, more efforts should be made to improve transparency and continuity in funding.
“stronger linkages with national and local development planning can not only maximize the impact of clearance and survey but can also attract other donors,” she also stressed.
The sector agreed to finalize the national prioritization system and revise the National Standard within the year so that clearance will always support development initiatives and facilitate the UXO implementation. Likewise, Ambassador Haymond added that “We believe the outputs of the U.S.-funded programs with UXO Lao, HALO, MAG, and NPA should together reach 5,000 hectares cleared in 2023, and more than 6,000 hectares cleared in 2024” The United States shares the Lao PDR’s goal of ensuring that by 2030 UXO does not limit development.

Source: Lao News Agency

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High-Level Consultation on the 9th NSEDP Financing Strategy

A High-Level Consultation was convened on last Friday with those that have been technically engaged to discuss the advanced draft of the Financing Strategy for the 9th NSEDP containing concrete policies and actions to ensure the sustainable financing of national development priorities.
The half-day meeting which was chaired by Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, Ms Phonevanh Outhavong, and UN Resident Coordinator, Ms. Sara Sekkenes, was attended by about 50 representatives from government, including Deputy Ministers and leading departments of involved Ministries, organisations and development partners.
The meeting deliberated the MPI-led draft Financing Strategy, which is based on the Integrated National Financing Framework methodology endorsed at the 2015 Conference on Financing for Development with all Member States, which considers all public and private sources of finance, with a clear focus on resolving fiscal challenges and simultaneously improving the regulatory framework for quality and sustainable investments, and the result of a collaborative process of nearly two years of consultation workshop with a large group of stakeholders.
The draft financing strategy was reviewed in detail during a two-day “writeshop” within government in early September and comprises 54 policies and actions and a dedicated matrix with assigned responsibilities for a rapid and smooth implementation from January 2023 to the end of 2025 when the 9th NSEDP comes to its end.
Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, Ms Phonevanh Outhavong said the mission of this broadly consulted and comprehensive financing strategy is to ensure effectiveness in the financing of the national plan through actions that will help increase the volume of development finance and improve the alignment of available resources with the 9th NSEDP.
Ms. Sara Sekkenes, UN Resident Coordinator to the Lao PDR, similarly mentioned that there is an imperative for strong guiding directions to mitigate the effects of the financial challenges Lao PDR faces, that can prioritise policies and targeted financial decisions that can bring the country back on its sustainable development trajectory.
The consultation also discussed preparation for the High-Level Structured Dialogue, which will see the validation of the 9th NSEDP Financing Strategy, among a much broader and open-ended group of stakeholders, planned for the end of September 2022.
This Financing Strategy is set to be endorsed by the end of this year by the government of Lao PDR, as an integral part of the national plan, and will guide the remaining implementation of the 9th NSEDP.

Source: Lao News Agency

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In post COVID-19 recovery, we can transform education by turning challenges into opportunities

Since arriving in Laos in August 2020, I have met outstanding, inspirational individuals wherever I traveled in the 18 provinces of the Lao PDR to see the impact of UNICEF’s work on the ground.
During my recent travel, I met May, a 22-year-old woman who greeted me graciously in the Lao style, and in perfect English. When I asked her where she learnt to speak English so well, she told me that it was thanks to her mother who encouraged her to study languages, as that would open doors to her around the world. And so May not only did brilliantly in school, graduating from university with flying colours, she also took it upon herself to learn English in her free time and practice it whenever she met a foreign person.
May’s story is a great example of how important it is for parents to value education and instill that value in their children. When parents are involved in their children’s education – especially in the first years of their life – and encourage their learning, children grow up more confident and excel in school.
May is one of hundreds of thousands of children who have benefited from the Lao PDR Governments’ unwavering commitment to attain universal primary education with gender parity, achieved in 2015 with a primary net enrollment rate of 98.8 per cent.
Despite this extraordinary achievement, four per cent of primary school students and 11 per cent of lower secondary school students drop out every year. And the number will likely increase, as families feel the pinch amid rising fuel and food prices all over the world.
As many as 30-40 per cent of children enrolling in primary school in 13 out of 18 districts in Laos have not attended pre-primary education and have missed out on an opportunity to develop the cognitive and emotional skills that serve as the building blocks for future learning. Children with access to early childhood education start primary school ready to learn.
In addition, a staggering 98 per cent of Grade 5 students have not mastered the numeracy skills, and 92 percent have not mastered the reading literacy skills they are expected to have at the end of primary school. These very same children are more likely to struggle academically and drop out of school. Beyond that, they risk facing poorer employment and social outcomes in the future. This reality is even starker for children from non-Lao-Tai ethnic groups, children living in rural or remote areas, children with disabilities, and children from poor families.
The world is in the depths of a learning crisis, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to estimates, nearly two-thirds of 10-year-olds across low-, middle-, and high-income countries are unable to read and understand a simple story, a measure known as learning poverty.
This is clearly the worst shock to education and learning in recorded history. Without urgent action on this learning crisis, we could face a generational catastrophe.
Over the past two years, children in Laos have missed out on countless hours of learning, which is setting back decades of progress in education. With inaction, today’s children will lack the skills needed for further learning and to thrive in Lao society, and for a skilled workforce that the Lao PDR needs to graduate from Least Developed Country (LDC) status.
While the learning crisis is a global challenge, it is not an impossible one. We know the solutions to prevent a generational catastrophe:
• Ensure parents understand the value of education and empower them to support their children’s learning and development, just like May’s mother did;
• Ensure all children return to school and are supported to catch-up on lost learning so that they can master foundational learning and numeracy skills and gain 21st century skills;
• Invest in teachers and promote opportunities for professional development and access to the adequate tools;
• Accelerate the digital transformation to promote inclusion, equality and quality education for all children;
• Increase and sustain investments in quality education including tackling the sources of inequality that leave the most disadvantaged children further behind.
The Lao PDR Government is addressing these challenges head on, as outlined in the National Commitment of Action prepared by the country for the United Nations Transforming Education Summit that took yesterday 19 September in New York. The Summit aims to mobilize action, ambition, solidarity and solutions to transform education between now and 2030.
The Lao PDR’s commitment, which was drafted following extensive consultations led by the Ministry of Education and Sports with other line ministries, the National Assembly, development partners, teachers and students, focuses on three action tracks:
1. Post COVID-19 learning recovery with an emphasis on keeping schools open and promote a healthy, equitable and safe environment for all learners, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds;
2. Innovation in education through digital transformation in schools, upskilling of teachers in digital pedagogies, expanding age-appropriate and safe digital learning for all learners, strengthening existing digital platforms like the MoES Khang Panya Lao (ຄັງປັນຍາລາວ), in line with the National Digital Economy Development Plan;
3. Adequate and sustainable public financing of education to meet the target of 18 per cent education share in the national budget.
The Government of the Lao PDR’s statement of commitment to education is truly transformative in that it turns challenges into opportunities for building a better, more resilient education system.
As the world emerges from the COVID-19 crisis, we have an unprecedented opportunity to re-imagine a modern education that delivers the knowledge, skills and outlooks needed for children and young people to excel in today’s world and contribute to sustainable, inclusive, healthy and peaceful futures.
We can achieve this by working together to mobilize greater political ambition, commitment, and action to reverse the slide and accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 on quality education.
Pia Rebello Britto is UNICEF’s Representative for the Lao PDR

Source: Lao News Agency