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  Mexico became the first LatAm state to begin developing fintech-specific legislation. 2018 law defines which organizations are considered as fintech companies, regardless of the type of credit they lend – short or long-term. If a company uses digital platforms and e-walleting in their activities, it should comply with the fintech law. In case the […]

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Partnership aims to accelerate digital transformation NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Presidio, Inc., a global digital services and solutions provider, today announced it has been awarded Dell Technologies Partner Program Titanium Black status in 2022. This recognizes Dell Technologies’ most strategic partners – those best equipped for today’s data-centric, multi-cloud world – and to support their customers in […]

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Pionauts, one of the most unique and groundbreaking NFT art collections, is set to launch on 28 April 2022, announced Johan Van Asperen Vervenne, the founder and visionary behind the team that created the series.

Today, Pionauts is the world's first company to create large-scale photorealistic appearances of historical pioneers, such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Nefertiti, Aristotle, Cleopatra, and so many more.

"Pionauts began as an idea for an NFT collection. Most NFT collections have about six different backgrounds," Johan said. "My team used 84 different 17th and 18th-century paintings to create many of the backgrounds used."

The 150 original pioneers selected by Van Asperen Vervenne and his team mostly lived before the invention of the camera. The team behind Pionauts are artificial intelligence, 2D and 3D graphic design specialists from nine countries.

“People of all ages are fascinated by pioneers that lived before the invention of the camera,” Van Asperen Vervenne said. “Before Pionauts came to life, we only saw old paintings and could only imagine what they looked like when they were alive.”

Van Asperen Vervenne felt it was time to bring them back to life today and go beyond the “stories we read about what they accomplished and go beyond imagining what stories they would tell about themselves if they were alive today.”

With that in mind, Van Asperen Vervenne and his team brought to life “the best-known pioneers with the latest 3D and artificial intelligence (AI) technology.” Applying Deep Learning technology and months of manual retouching, a collection of 8,500 unique variations was created with modified characteristics such as age, facial features and expressions.

Voting utility

Each of these NFTs comes with voting powers that grant holders of the breath-taking digital art collectibles the right to voice how they want the Pionauts comic stories told. They also come with copyrights and many of the photorealistic pioneers' portraits are already trademarked, said Van Asperen Vervenne.

“These portrait trademarks safeguard against infringement of copyrights increasing the value of the Pionauts project,” he added. “Pionauts owns the copyrights for commercial and non-commercial use.

 Royalty income

The Pionauts team sees a positive future in collaborating in various entertainment, marketing and educational projects. Johan and his team's goal is to create more 3D models of pioneer's faces and explore collaborations with Metaverse games, brands, educational- and the movie industry.

“Our goal for Pionauts NFT holders is to share in our future success as the Pionauts brand expands. Pionauts will share 25% of its royalty income with its NFT holders that are KYC (Know Your Customers) compliant,” Johan said.

Pionauts allows all Pionaut NFT holders to exclusively co-create new storylines about breathtaking interplanetary journeys and have a voice in choosing where the story goes next, Johan said.

"The ambition of the Pionauts team is to create a series of pilots, blockbuster movies, similarly as Pixar's Toy Story franchise and the Marvel cinematic universe," Van Asperen Vervenne said. "Pionauts has some very exciting announcements in the pipeline," he said.

The Pionaut's inception

Van Asperen Vervenne one day became intrigued by musician George Aquilla Hardy's depiction of what the first US President would look like today. But Johan went further. He dove into the topic of facial recognition and researched facial reconstruction techniques for digital illustration.

After he concluded his investigation, he decided to see if he could recreate the faces of a few famous people throughout history. After forming a dedicated team of international designers, he looked at historic pioneers regarded as some of the world's greatest minds.

With the help of some of the world's best artificial intelligence (AI) experts, including the founding father of the AI Gan source code, Johan added movements to the face of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle from the image of a statue representing his likeness.

Patience paid off, and it enticed Johan and his colleagues to continue with more restorations. They chose several more famous personalities of the past, that also include Socrates, Beethoven and William Shakespeare.

After many hours of meticulous attention to detail, the talented group transformed the faces of several of the most renowned pioneers worldwide into a photorealistic likeness of them thanks to groundbreaking AI. And then the decision to make them Pionauts.

"Earth is explored by the greatest minds in history. Imagine the progress we can make if these brilliant people help us explore space?" Johan asked. "And thus, the pioneers from history became Pionauts."

Utility

Each of the 8,500 NFTs comes with great utility. They come with voting rights on comic stories with the pioneer characters, their stories, the possibility for holders to input their stories, royalties from their sales, and future movie deals from which we like each NFT holder to profit.

“The goal is that holders of any Pionauts NFT will enjoy passive income as the Pionauts brand expands,” and “This 'army' of thousands of Pionauts NFT holders will undoubtedly help signal, prevent and protect Pionauts portrait rights for the benefit of all those invested in the collection.”

The unique Pionauts NFT collection launches on 28 April 2022

www.pionauts.com         Discord: https://lnkd.in/eQktanmD         Twitter: @pionauts 

Ends

The Lightning Network provides instant payment transfers/settlement times, scalability, low costs/fees, and works across blockchain with the same cryptographic hash function The Network’s capacity grew from 1,089 BTC to 3,479 BTC in 12 months LQwD’s active public nodes on the Lightning Network include France, England, Singapore, Sweden, Italy, Indonesia, Germany, Ireland, and the U.S. and … Continue reading "LQwD FinTech Corp. (TSX.V: LQWD) (OTCQB: LQWDF) Committed to Driving Bitcoin Adoption via Lightning Network Offering; Network Tripled Capacity in 2021"

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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell emphasized on Wednesday that technology transformation is here to stay in the financial sector and that new regulations will be required. Powell revealed some insight into how the United States would govern the market during a presentation at the Bank of International Settlements Innovation Summit on central bank digital currencies. The digital age was not taken into consideration when establishing our current regulatory structures, the Fed official said. “There will be revisions to current laws and regulations, as well as the creation of wholly new rules and structure, if central banks, stablecoins, and digital currencies are to be implemented,” he said during a roundtable discussion on CBDCs at the BISI Summit. Is There A Threat? Powell noted that emerging forms of digital money, like cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, pose threats to the US financial system and will necessitate the adoption of additional consumer protection measures. Powell reaffirmed his position that cryptocurrency should adhere to the “same activity, same regulation” premise. He proposed regulating stablecoin issuers, such as banks, in October 2021. “Stablecoins function similarly to money market funds. They’re similar to bank deposits… and it is reasonable for them to be controlled similarly, same activity, same regulation,” he concluded. Powell Says DeFi Can Improve Finance Sector Despite this, the Fed chairman acknowledged that distributed technology and DeFi have the potential to improve the payment system’s efficiency and foster a more competitive financial sector. This is an impressive recognition from the director of one of the country’s premier financial institutions. Other agencies and their personnel have embraced crypto and blockchain technology as well, albeit they all appear to advocate for some level of regulation. Crypto total market cap at $1.94 trillion on the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com Suggested Reading | Fiat – Not Crypto – Still The Top Choice For Financial Crimes, US Treasury Says Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency that are typically backed by the dollar or a commodity such as precious metal. CBDCs are digital representations of dollars or other fiat currencies that governments issue. The Fed is exdigital currencies but has not yet decided whether to issue them. In January, it published a study on stablecoins. Biden’s Executive Order US President Joe Biden signed an executive order earlier this month directing the Treasury Department and other federal agencies to conduct a study on the impact of cryptocurrency on economic stability and national security. Biden’s directive comes as many Democratic legislators, notably Massachusetts’ Elizabeth Warren, have expressed worry that cryptocurrency could be used to circumvent US sanctions against Russia. As part of the executive mandate, the Treasury is leading a report on a CBDC in consultation with the Departments of Justice, Commerce, and State, as well as the Office of Management and Budget, Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence, to determine whether the US should pursue a digital dollar. Suggested Reading | Bitcoin Breaks Past The $40,000 Barrier Again – Can It Sustain The Momentum? Featured image from CryptoSlate, chart from TradingView.com

HONG KONG, Mar 24, 2022 - (ACN Newswire) - VCREDIT Holdings Limited ("VCREDIT" or the "Group"; stock code: 2003.HK), a leading independent online consumer finance provider in China, is pleased to announce its audited consolidated results for the year ended 31 December 2021 (the "Year").

During the Year, the Group's total income increased significantly by 34.4% year-on-year to RMB3,458 million (2020: RMB2,573 million). The Group successfully achieved a turnaround, with net profit of RMB1,179 million (2020: net loss of RMB870 million). The Group is committed to creating sustainable investment returns for its shareholders, sharing the fruits of success in its operations. Therefore, following the declaration of dividend for the first time during its interim results, the Board has recommended a final dividend of HK15 cents per share for the Year. Together with the interim dividend and special dividend totalling HK20 cents per share already paid out, the full year dividend was HK35 per share.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic and evolving macro-economic environment brought challenges and uncertainties, VCREDIT delivered an outstanding operating performance and promising financial results during the Year driven by its technology-focused risk management and dynamic operational strategies. As a result of the recovery of the macro economy in China, the loan origination volume achieved significant growth, coupled with the Group's strategies in migrating to a higher-quality borrower and borrower acquisition model, the Group successfully improved its overall asset quality, leading to a significant increase in loan facilitation service fees by 115.9% to RMB1,540 million. The interest income amounted to RMB1,972 million, remained at a stable level as compared to the previous year.

The Group primarily offers two credit products through its pure online loan origination processes, including credit cards balance transfer products and consumption credit products, both of which are installment-based. For the Year, the total number of transactions was 3.4 million. The average term of the Group's credit products was approximately 9.4 months and the average loan size was approximately RMB11,965. The Group constantly adjusted its risk management and credit policies to maintain a prudent risk approach and efficiency of operations, so as to deliver outstanding business growth and a controllable credit risk performance.

Both quantity and quality of the customer base witnessed remarkable growth
As a result of its proactive management, enhanced communication channels, focused marketing and higher profile brand recognition, the Group successfully expanded its user base. The number of registered users of VCREDIT reached the level of "over 100 million" and increased to 112.5 million during the Year, which also led to a significant increase in its loan facilitation volume. Meanwhile, with the application of big data customer acquisition models driven by artificial intelligence, the Group improved its operational efficiency and enhanced the target customer identification and market penetration. In addition, the Group continued to refine its online APPs and system to enhance customer experience, which has improved the loyalty and retention rate of customers. Benefitting from this, the Group has successfully transitioned its customer base towards higher quality near-prime and prime borrowers, resulting in a significant improvement in its delinquency levels.

Optimising risk management to enhance asset quality
The Group places great emphasis on technology-focused risk management, iterating its credit risk models through the introduction of multi-dimension data sources, deep analytics of credit risk performance, and sophisticated testing. The Group also constantly adjusted its risk management and credit policies to maintain a prudent risk approach and efficiency of operations to deliver outstanding business growth and a controllable credit risk performance. In addition, the Group's credit risk management capability enables it to maintain its core competitiveness and well positions it to sustain healthy business growth and defend macroeconomic uncertainties. During the Year, through adjusting policy timely and optimising risk models, the Group managed to maintain its first payment delinquency ratio at an industry-wide low level of around 0.42%, which is conducive to improving the Group's asset quality.

Win-win collaboration and close partnership with funding partners
To support the rapid and sustainable development of its businesses, the Group worked closely with 69 external funding partners during the Year, including nationwide joint-stock commercial banks, consumer finance companies and trusts, that constituted a diverse and affluent funding pool. These long-term and stable collaborative relationships have allowed the Group to improve its funding costs. Furthermore, the Group's guarantee companies, third-party guarantee companies and asset management companies form an ecosystem that ensures the Group's funding flexibility and provides protection to its funding partners.

Outlook
Looking ahead, to create sustainable investment returns for its shareholders, the Group will seek to provide shareholders with regular dividends with a normal target payout ratio of between 20% to 30% of the Group's audited consolidated net profits each year, subject however to factors that the Board deems relevant namely the Group's financial results, available distributable reserves and cash position, etc.

At the same time, in order to contribute to further growth in its consumer finance business and fulfilling the financial needs of high-quality customers, the Group will strive to proactively hone its business strategies and upscale its technology, in order to better serve its customers to improve brand recognition. While enhancing risk management capability through ceaselessly evolving technology and artificial intelligence, the Group will strengthen regulated and long-term collaborations with licensed financial institutional partners and other business partners, in hopes of building a wide moat for business development. In addition to growing its existing consumer finance operation organically, the Group will also seek to expand and diversify its business through actively identifying suitable investment and acquisition targets, thus maintaining its competitiveness in an ever-changing macro environment.

About VCREDIT Holdings Limited (2003.HK)
VCREDIT Holdings Limited ("VCREDIT") is a leading player in China's consumer finance industry with over 10 years of track record. The Group caters to prime and near-prime borrowers underserved by traditional financial institutions by offering online consumption products. To match the funding needs for these products, the Group primarily engages institutional funding partners through three types of sustainable and scalable funding structures: trust lending, credit-enhanced loan facilitation and pure loan facilitation. Through such funding structures, VCREDIT provides institutional funding partners with solutions at varying levels of risk discretion and flexible profit-sharing arrangements.

Website: https://www.vcredit.com/


Copyright 2022 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. www.acnnewswire.comVCREDIT Holdings Limited ("VCREDIT" or the "Group"; stock code: 2003.HK), a leading independent online consumer finance provider in China, is pleased to announce its audited consolidated results for the year ended 31 December 2021 (the "Year").

The computer password has been around for more than 6 decades. The first password can be traced back to 1961 in Massachusetts when a computer at MIT was protected with

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This post was co-written by John Heater, SVP of the Contact Center Practice at NeuraFlash. NeuraFlash is an Advanced AWS Partner with over 40 collective years of experience in the voice and automation space. With a dedicated team of conversation designers, data engineers, and AWS developers, NeuraFlash helps customers take advantage of the power of Amazon […]

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become one of the most used emerging technologies in improving the efficiency of modern-day systems. This nascent technological field dates its origins to the 1950s following Alan Turing’s theory of computation. The prominent English mathematician, also known as the father of computer science, raised a fundamental question in his ‘Computing and …

LQwD has recently deployed additional routing nodes in Europe, namely in Italy, Sweden, Ireland, England and France Since the US-West deployment in November 2021, LQwD has seen 157 nodes interconnected with more than 158 transaction channels over 10 Bitcoin through all channels Arcane Research predicts that there will be as many as 700 million Lightning … Continue reading "LQwD FinTech Corp. (TSX.V: LQWD) (OTCQB: LQWDF) Launches New European Routing Nodes, Now Providing Nine Active Nodes on Lightning Network"

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