Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1426475
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 NOVEMBER 2021 14 COMMERCIAL Curmi & Partners onboards London-based FinTech firm to offer its clients the latest in technology LEADING investment firm Curmi & Partners has an- nounced a tech partnership with the innovative investment platform and software provid- er UK company Third Finan- cial. The London-based firm is best known for its proprietary investment management soft- ware suite Tercero, which gives wealth managers access to the tools they need to allow them to concentrate on managing their clients' assets, safe in the knowledge that their technol- ogy and operations are in the hands of the expert Tercero Platform team. To date this software is used by approximately 60 leading investment management firms in the UK along, to manage over GPB 50 billion of client assets. With over 20 years of ex- perience, the independently owned wealth management company provides the high- est levels of personal expertise and advice to individuals and companies seeking meaningful returns on their investments. Commenting on this partner- ship, Curmi & Partners CEO David Curmi said; "Our firm has a long-standing reputation of delivering sterling service to all our clients. I am confident that this latest addition will complement and enhance our offering whilst propelling us to new levels of growth and rec- ognition within the financial services industry." Ricky Ali, commercial direc- tor for Third Financial added "We are thrilled to welcome Curmi & Partners on board as our latest client. It has been a pleasure to work with the team in Malta, and we look forward to a long successful working relationship. BOV pioneering the shift to digital banking PEOPLE, skills, the collabora- tion between industry and ed- ucation, and entrepreneurship were all discussed on the third day of this year's Malta Future Realised week, organised by EY Malta. Speakers from several indus- tries discussed the findings of the Generate Youth Survey, a survey conducted between over 750 participants, from both Generation Z and Mil- lennials. Research shows that 65% of Generation Z and 56% of the Millennials would prefer to be an entrepreneur rather than be employed by someone else. This shows an increase of 5% and 6% from the results re- corded in 2020. BOV's Chief Retail Banking Officer, Kenneth Farrugia, stated that these statistics are a positive sign that our youth shows ambitions of leadership, but that may not be enough for entrepreneurship to be at- tainable. "It's good to see that our younger generation want to be the employers, but these same people need to avail themselves of the plethora of certifications that can equip them with better mindsets to become entrepreneurs," said Mr Farrugia. Financial literacy was re- marked as a critical attribute for people to be capable of leading their own business. "It all starts with developing a market offering, which then needs to be backed up by wise investment and a good level of financial literacy. From a banking perspective, we notice an improvement in financial literacy from the continuous shift to digital banking." Particularly since the start of the pandemic, the trend of digital banking has been growing exponentially while conversely, the volume of over-the-counter-transactions has been gradually declining. "In fact, as of last September, the Bank experienced a year- on-year 20% increase in digi- tal banking transactions, some of which also include digital batch payments from business clients. Between January and Sep- tember, cheque usage reduced by 34% when compared to the same period in 2020. We al- so recorded approximately 2 million mobile banking logins compared to the 1.45 million reported last year. These an- alytics show that people are more open to manage their fi- nances innovatively, which in turn provides banks with more data to tailor better and more flexible products and service experience." The collaboration between industry and education was also mentioned, as some stat- ed that a stronger collabora- tion between them is needed to ensure our system evolves with the industry's necessities. "Are we doing enough? I think that we've done a lot, but not enough. We have to build an ecosystem to enable our peo- ple to start or develop their own enterprise" concluded Mr Farrugia. Kenneth Farrugia Curmi & Partners CEO David Curmi, and Third Financial commercial director Ricky Ali