Fintech PR
Ping An Wins Sixth Director of the Year Award and Inaugural Climate Governance Award from the Hong Kong Institute of Directors
HONG KONG and SHANGHAI, Nov. 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (hereafter “Ping An” or the “Group”, HKEX: 2318/82318, SSE: 601318) received the Director of the Year Award and the Climate Governance Award for 2024 from the Hong Kong Institute of Directors (HKIoD) on November 28. This marks the sixth time Ping An’s Board of Directors has received the Director of the Year Award. Ping An is also the first recipient of the inaugural Climate Governance Award.
Since its establishment in 1988, Ping An has become one of the largest integrated financial, healthcare and senior care service providers in Mainland China. Ping An was nominated for the HKIoD awards for its diversified board of directors, dedicated to safeguarding the interests of the Company and all shareholders and promoting the Company’s long-term, stable development.
Mr. Ng Sing Yip, Independent Non-executive Director, accepted the awards on behalf of Ping An’s board. He said, “Ping An’s success as a world-leading integrated financial, healthcare and senior care service provider is closely linked to its high standards of corporate governance and the trust of our stakeholders.” The awards were also attended by Ms. Cai Fangfang, Executive Director and Senior Vice President, Ms. Cai Xun, Non-executive Director, Mr. Ng Kong Ping Albert, Independent Non-executive Director, Mr. Liew Fui Kiang, Independent Supervisor, and Mr. Hung Ka Hai Clement, Independent Supervisor, as representatives of the board and the Supervisory Committee.
Ping An’s Board of Directors will continue to lead the Company’s strategic planning, and participate in risk management, financial control, compliance, and internal control. The board will continue to enhance corporate governance and climate risk management capabilities, and grow value for stakeholders.
Ping An has long pursued a balanced and professional board structure. Ping An’s 15 directors possess professional expertise in insurance, banking, investment, accounting, law, management, and technology, with extensive industry and operational experience. Ping An has six independent non-executive directors, who account for 40% of the Board, exceeding the industry average. In 2023, the board completed 26 training sessions covering corporate governance, environmental and climate impact, and sustainable development. Since the Company’s listing, the board has conducted on-site inspections and reviews at grassroots level for 20 years, collecting opinions and suggestions from frontline employees and urging business units to continuously improve operational management.
Ping An’s Board of Directors focuses on providing foresight and guidance of the Company’s strategy for efficient implementation and high-quality business development. Under the leadership of the board, Ping An is promoting its “integrated finance + healthcare and senior care” strategy driven by technology. In the first three quarters of 2024, the Group’s operating profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company reached RMB113.82 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 5.5%, and revenue reached RMB775.38 billion, a year-on-year increase of 10.0%. Three core businesses – life and health insurance, property and casualty insurance and banking – maintained growth, with their combined operating profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company reaching RMB119.65 billion, a year-on-year increase of 5.7%.
Ping An continues to strengthen integrated finance, shifting from cross-selling to comprehensive customer management. As of September 30, 2024, the Group had 240 million retail customers, a year-to-date increase of 3.8%. Customer retention continued to improve, with 25.1% of customers holding four or more contracts within the Group, and a retention rate of 98.0%. The healthcare and senior care strategy continued to yield results, with the value of Ping An’s differential advantages becoming more apparent. In the first three quarters of 2024, more than 19.5 million Ping An Life insurance customers used services in the healthcare and senior care ecosystem. Ping An’s innovative integrated “medical care, nursing, housing, and entertainment” model has established industry standards and ecosystems for senior care services. The services cover 75 cities across China, with more than 150,000 customers entitled to home-based senior care services.
Ping An’s Board of Directors oversees environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) matters. It has built an efficient and collaborative long-term ESG governance mechanism, and promotes core practices such as climate governance and rural revitalization. Ping An pledges to achieve carbon neutrality across its operations by 2030, and has formulated short- and medium-term targets and roadmaps. In 2023, Ping An took the lead in launching China’s insurance industry’s first carbon account system covering all employees, recording each employee’s low-carbon office behavior, daily low-carbon behavior, and carbon emission data to support climate governance. Ping An also promotes green finance. In the first three quarters of 2024, Ping An’s green insurance premium income reached RMB37.34 billion.
Thanks to its outstanding performance in sustainable development, Ping An has received the highest ratings in multiple industry evaluations. Ping An has maintained an A rating in MSCI ESG Ratings for two consecutive years, ranking first in the multi-line insurance and brokerage industry in the Asia-Pacific region. It has been in S&P’s Sustainability Yearbook (China Edition) for two consecutive years, the only insurance company from Mainland China on the list. Ping An also has a “low risk” rating with a score of 17.0 in Morningstar Sustainalytics ESG Ratings and a B rating in CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) Ratings, the highest ratings in China’s financial industry.
The HKIoD is Hong Kong’s premier organization representing professional directors, with more than 2,000 members from senior management of Hong Kong-based companies and listed companies worldwide. Its Director of the Year Awards evaluate companies’ performance in promoting development strategies, business strategies, and digital transformation at the board level. The Climate Governance Award, a newly launched award series in 2024, evaluates the performance of corporate boards in promoting sustainable development, climate governance and related information disclosure. The 2024 awards were co-organized by the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau, the Securities and Futures Commission, and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited.
Ping An will continue to adhere to responsible, high-standard corporate governance. Under the scientific and forward-looking guidance of the Board of Directors, Ping An will continue to deepen the “integrated finance + healthcare and senior care” strategy driven by technology, consolidate the advantages of integrated finance, promote its healthcare and senior care initiatives, advance digital transformation and pursue high-quality development. It is committed to creating greater value through stable growth for customers, employees, shareholders, and society.
About Ping An Group
Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (HKEx:2318 / 82318; SSE:601318) is one of the largest financial services companies in the world. It strives to become a world-leading provider of integrated finance, health and senior care services, Under the technology-driven “integrated finance + health and senior care” strategy, the Group provides professional “financial advisory, family doctor, and senior care concierge” services to its 240 million retail customers. Ping An advances intelligent digital transformation and employs technologies to improve financial businesses’ quality and efficiency and enhance risk management. The Group is listed on the stock exchanges in Hong Kong and Shanghai. As of the end of September 2024, Ping An had more than RMB12 trillion in total assets. The Group ranked 29th in the Forbes Global 2000 list in 2024 and 53rd in the Fortune Global 500 list in 2024.
For more information, please visit www.group.pingan.com and follow us on LinkedIn – PING AN.
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Fund aims to support new projects building AI tools to accelerate breakthrough discoveries in mathematics
WASHINGTON and LONDON, Dec. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Renaissance Philanthropy and XTX Markets today announced the launch of the AI for Math Fund. The fund will commit $9.2 million to support the development of new AI tools, which will serve as long-term building blocks to advance mathematics.
An increasing number of researchers, including some of the world’s leading mathematicians, are embracing AI to push the boundaries of mathematical discovery and learning. The AI for Math Fund will support projects that expand the use of leading AI technology by mathematicians globally.
Alex Gerko, Founder and co-CEO, XTX Markets said, “The fund will support this critical intersection between AI and math. Working in partnership with Renaissance Philanthropy, we want to give mathematicians the tools they need to advance the field. As AI continues to transform other sciences, we believe that mathematics will be next.”
Renaissance Philanthropy and XTX Markets are inviting proposals for innovative projects led by researchers, non-profits, companies, mathematicians, software engineers and computer scientists that are unlikely to occur under business-as-usual conditions. Click here to submit an application.
Proposals should be aligned with one of the following categories:
- Production grade software tools: AI for auto-formalization, proof generation, synthesis of verifiable code, and more
- Datasets: Open-source collections of theorems, proofs, and math problems
- Field building: Textbooks, courses, and resources to grow the AI-for-math community
- Breakthrough ideas: High-risk, high-reward approaches to AI-driven math research
XTX Markets is the founding donor of the AI for Math Fund.
“We are excited to partner with XTX Markets on this important initiative,” said Tom Kalil, CEO of Renaissance Philanthropy. “The convergence of AI and math has the potential to advance fundamental mathematics, the reasoning capability of AI systems, and the synthesis of verifiable code.”
Following a rigorous assessment of the proposals, individual grants of up to $1 million will be awarded for projects lasting up to 24 months.
Terence Tao, UCLA, Fields Medalist and AI for Math Fund advisor said, “The next generation of AI models and tools have the potential to enhance collaboration among mathematicians that was previously impossible. I am delighted to work with Renaissance Philanthropy and XTX Markets to realize this potential through the AI for Math Fund.”
About Renaissance Philanthropy
Renaissance Philanthropy is a nonprofit organization with a mission to fuel a 21st century renaissance by increasing the ambition of philanthropists, scientists, and innovators. We do this by advising philanthropists, surfacing breakthrough ideas, and incubating ambitious initiatives.
About XTX Markets
XTX Markets is a leading algorithmic trading firm which uses state-of-the-art machine learning technology to produce price forecasts for over 50,000 financial instruments across equities, fixed income, currencies, commodities and crypto. It uses those forecasts to trade on exchanges and alternative trading venues, and to offer differentiated liquidity directly to clients worldwide. The firm trades over $250bn a day across 35 countries and has over 250 employees based in London, Singapore, New York, Paris, Bristol, Mumbai and Yerevan.
XTX Markets has an unrivalled level of computational resources in the trading industry, with a growing research cluster currently containing over 25,000 GPUs with 650 petabytes of usable storage. Teams across the firm include world-class researchers with backgrounds in pure math, programming, physics, computer science and machine learning. The firm is also constructing a large-scale data centre in Finland to future-proof its significant computational capabilities.
Since 2017, XTX Markets has committed over £250 million to charities and non-profit partners, establishing the firm as a major philanthropic donor in the UK and globally. The firm’s philanthropy focuses on advancing mathematics education and research, having committed over £50 million in grants to UK charities and education institutions, with the aim of supporting more students to progress to degrees, PhDs and highly-skilled careers in maths, especially those from low-income backgrounds. XTX Markets has also committed more than £25 million to support elite mathematics talent worldwide. More broadly, the firm’s giving also supports high-impact education programmes in low- and middle-income countries, humanitarian relief and local community initiatives in the regions where our offices are located internationally.
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/renaissance-philanthropy-and-xtx-markets-launch-new-9-million-ai-for-math-fund-302324035.html
Fintech PR
Mambu acquires payment technology provider Numeral, bolstering its market position to target new growth opportunities
- The acquisition marks a strategic move by the cloud banking leader to extend its payment capabilities for customers, as Mambu eyes market expansion and accelerated growth in support of long-term plans.
- Numeral’s platform will be integrated into Mambu’s core banking offerings, with advanced payment solutions technology, to accelerate and advance the next generation of financial products.
AMSTERDAM, Dec. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Mambu, a leading cloud banking platform, has announced the acquisition of Numeral, a French payment technology provider for banks and fintechs.
The acquisition strengthens Mambu’s position as an industry leader, in a move that underscores market confidence and growing demand for modern financial experiences. The addition of advanced payment capabilities represents a significant investment in the next phase of Mambu’s growth as an established market player.
With Numeral’s platform, Mambu is set to drive new value from wider audience segments that will increase its overall share of the market. It also offers a unique strategic fit to the foundation of the cloud banking leader’s long-term expansion efforts.
“This acquisition marks a considered move to deliver a more modern, comprehensive payment offering which is now an integrated part of Mambu’s product portfolio. Numeral’s advanced payments platform will enable us to address changing customer demands, strengthen existing product lines and expand our market reach, while offering businesses advanced capabilities to meet an extensive range of needs.” – Fernando Zandona, CEO at Mambu.
Speaking about why Numeral was the ‘right fit’ for Mambu, Zandona added: “Numeral’s values, proven agility, and robust onboarding processes match perfectly with our growth mindset as a business. We look forward to welcoming their talented team as we unlock new growth opportunities together.”
Founded in 2021, Numeral is a fast-growing payment technology provider that offers financial institutions a universal gateway to connect to partner banks and access schemes and a modern payments hub to automate payment processing. The Paris-based firm processes more than €10 billion in payments annually and has established a strong presence in Europe, having expanded its operations to the UK last year.
The size of the market opportunity for bank payments is striking. In 2022, the value of bank payments in the Eurozone stood at €191 trillion, that is 58x more than card payments (€3.3 trillion). This vast global market is transforming rapidly, driven by the rise of instant payments as a catalyst for modernising core banking and payment platforms. With its robust bank integrations, a modular API and modern dashboard, Numeral’s platform will enable Mambu to capitalise on this market opportunity.
The cloud banking platform will also benefit from Numeral’s roster of partnerships with some of Europe’s leading banks, including BNP Paribas, Barclays, HSBC, and ABN AMRO.
“Payments are at the heart of how companies do business around the world, yet they remain trapped in systems designed decades ago, unfit for the ongoing instant payments revolution,” said Numeral co-founder and CEO, Édouard Mandon. “This is a problem that Mambu intimately understands having helped banks and financial institutions worldwide to migrate from rigid, traditional core systems to agile and adaptable cloud infrastructure. Bringing together our dedicated payments technology with Mambu’s leading cloud banking platform and global customer base, we can enable more companies to make their payments future-proof and ever-compliant while eliminating hidden payment complexity at scale.”
The integration of Mambu and Numeral’s advanced payment platform will enable banks, fintechs, and non-financial service firms to seamlessly manage end-to-end payment workflows, support multiple payment methods, and provide real-time transaction capabilities. This will drive greater operational efficiency, improved customer experiences, and accelerated time-to-market for innovative financial solutions.
Mambu will gain the flexibility to offer an even more sophisticated, readily-available set of payment capabilities. New and not-yet-live customers can take advantage of this from day one, while customers that already have a payment solution in place will have the option to upgrade.
Notes to editors
About Mambu
Mambu is the world’s only true SaaS cloud banking platform. Launched in 2011, Mambu fast-tracks the design and build of nearly any type of financial offering for banks of all sizes, lenders, fintechs, retailers, telcos and more. Our unique composable approach means that independent components, systems and connectors can be assembled in any configuration to meet business needs and end user demands. Mambu supports over 260 customers in over 65 countries – including Western Union, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, N26, BancoEstado, Raiffeisen Bank, ABN AMRO, and Bank Islam. www.mambu.com
About Numeral
Numeral is a payment technology provider that offers financial institutions a universal gateway to connect to partner banks and access schemes and a modern payments hub to automate payment processing. Numeral enables fintechs and banks to unlock growth by launching new products and expanding geographically faster, eliminating hidden payment complexity and making their payments future-proof and ever-compliant. Launched in 2021, Numeral provides the payment infrastructure for the most innovative European banks and fintechs like WorldFirst, Argentex and Alma and partners with Europe’s leading banks, including BNP Paribas, Barclays, BPCE, HSBC and LHV.
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/mambu-acquires-payment-technology-provider-numeral-bolstering-its-market-position-to-target-new-growth-opportunities-302323963.html
CHICAGO, Dec. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — G.H. Smart & Company, LLC, the world’s premier leadership advisory firm, proudly announces the appointment of Jeff McLean as Chief Executive Officer. McLean, President of ghSMART for the past three years, steps into the newly created role to lead the firm’s next phase of growth and innovation.
Under McLean’s leadership as President, ghSMART secured 14 #1 rankings in Vault’s “Best Consulting Firms to Work For” and achieved 100% client satisfaction, solidifying its reputation as the most trusted advisor to CEOs, boards, and investors worldwide. As CEO, McLean aims to further advance ghSMART’s mission to help leaders build valuable companies through expertise in business and human behavior.
Founder and Chairman Geoff Smart shared his confidence in McLean’s leadership: “Jeff’s track record was remarkable even before joining ghSMART—Fulbright and Truman Scholar, Navy Fighter Pilot and Test Pilot, White House Fellow. As President, he surpassed our firm’s goals, demonstrated unwavering dedication to our team and clients, exemplifying our credo to help leaders amplify their positive impact on the world. I am excited to see his leadership flourish as CEO. Jeff is the definition of a servant leader and embodies the values that make ghSMART extraordinary.”
McLean shared his enthusiasm for this new chapter: “It is an honor to lead ghSMART as CEO. Our work profoundly impacts the world by empowering the most influential leaders to achieve extraordinary results. I am deeply inspired every day by the incredibly talented people on our team, and I’m grateful for the trust placed in me. Together, we will continue to set the standard for excellence in high-stakes leadership advisory.”
This leadership elevation comes as ghSMART continues to expand its global presence and investment in digital solutions, driven by increasing demand for its advisory services. With McLean at the helm, the firm is poised to deepen its influence in shaping the future of leadership.
About ghSMART
ghSMART is the trusted advisor to CEOs, boards, and investors on leadership strategies that drive performance and transformation. Combining rigorous assessments with analytics, ghSMART supports its clients in building exceptional teams and achieving their most ambitious goals. Founded on the belief that leadership is the most powerful force for good, ghSMART remains a pioneer in leadership advisory, with a legacy of bestselling books and industry accolades. For more information, visit www.ghsmart.com.
Media Contact:
Jennifer Watkins
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