Market News

Refinitiv, formerly the Financial and Risk business of Thomson Reuters, has announced that its financial and markets data will be integrated in Microsoft applications and services, including Microsoft Excel, MSN Money, and Bing. The agreement will make financial data from Refinitiv available to customers who utilize these applications, starting with Excel, which has over one billion users. The integration with Excel is expected to be available by the end...Read More

Fintech investments on the rise, sub-sectors such as blockchain attracting record levels of investor interest and artificial intelligence gaining traction. It’s all pointing to a great year for digital banking in the US This has been a strong year so far with fintech investments exceeding 2017’s figures in terms of value and volume. Sub-sectors such as insurtech, regtech, blockchain, wealth management and lending attracted highest levels of investor interest with...Read More

Zenmonics has accepted a minority investment from FIS. The agreement represents the “natural evolution” of a “long and successful partnership” between the two companies. The investment enables Zenmonics to continue its growth and extend capabilities of its channelUNITED platform. “This investment marks an important and exciting milestone for our firm,” said Riaz Syed, founder and chief executive officer of Zenmonics. “It enables us to grow innovation and delivery capacity...Read More

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has published a new report titled: “Crypto-asset markets: Potential channels for future financial stability implications”. The report sets out the analysis behind the FSB’s proactive assessment of the potential implications of crypto-assets for financial stability. The reports follows up on the initial assessment set out in the FSB Chair’s March 2018 letter to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, and the summary of...Read More

CQG has announced a new partnership with Nasdaq Fixed Income (NFI). Under the agreement, NFI will provide the web-based CQG Desktop platform to NFI customers as the official front-end for trading NFI’s U.S. Treasury Benchmark products. CQG announced earlier this year a partnership with Nasdaq Futures Exchange (NFX), providing CQG Desktop to NFX as its front-end trading platform. CQG Chief of Staff Alli Brennan said: “Our partners at Nasdaq...Read More

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) has launched its new integrated digital platform, ‘Sahmi’ which provides digital services for individual investors. Sahmi aims to manage investor relations by automating investors service requests within the platform across all major systems in ADX, as well as integrating it with digital initiatives introduced by the UAE government, such as SmartPass and The Whole of Government. “The digital integrated platform, Sahmi, will enable a...Read More

Fiserv and DadeSystems announced today that they will collaborate to provide financial institutions with the capabilities and confidence needed to automate accounts receivables processing for businesses, with Fiserv serving as a connection point through which institutions can access DadePay AR Automation as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution. Financial institutions can offer the solution as a standalone service or as a complement to the commercial banking suite from Fiserv, helping businesses lower...Read More

World Bank Group’s International Financial Corporation (IFC) and Ant Financial have committed to take 10,000 fintech trainees under their wing for inclusion in emerging markets. The 10×1000 Tech, a joint programme, will allow trainees to interact and exchange ideas in series of workshops held in China and other countries over next 10 years. This will ensue partnerships with players from public as well as private sectors. A joint statement...Read More

Murex’s MX.3 platform has been selected to support Al Rajhi bank’s evolving Islamic finance activities and to meet the demands of local and international regulators. With new regulatory demands, Al Rajhi Bank also wanted to modernise its system landscape and build a coherent strategy for regulatory compliance and internal risk management. They think MX.3 will allow them to more effectively manage risk and comply with demanding Basel regulations, including...Read More

UniCredit Bank Hungary and Alipay have signed an agreement, the first in the country, making the latter’s payment services available to Chinese visitors coming to Hungary from 2019. According to the Hungarian Tourism Agency, Budapest had 178,000 Chinese visitors in 2017, with China being among the top 10 countries from where tourists are arriving to the capital. Based on governmental statements, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Hungary grew...Read More

Bank of Beirut has implemented Wolters Kluwer’s OneSumX to provide its software for managing International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 9. The implementation of the software is part of the bank’s drive to achieve IFRS 9 compliance with “a broad range of regulatory requirements across many jurisdictions and other financial reporting obligations”. MDSL SAL and Advanced Financial Solutions (AFS), implemented the Wolters Kluwer solution, supported by advisory services firm True...Read More

Blockchain banking firm BABB has successfully completed its equity crowdfunding through Crowdcube, raising more than £1,400,000 from 1,232 investors. The funds will be used to support BABB’s applications for banking licences in the UK and Lithuania. BABB is building a decentralised platform using blockchain and biometrics technology, to provide mobile banking services to “empower the global micro economy” and “tackle one of the world’s biggest challenges: how to effectively...Read More

The cost of AML compliance across U.S. financial services firms equaled $25.3 billion per year, based on survey responses to a LexisNexis survey. The report shows that smaller firms are hit hardest, relative to their bottom lines, as the cost of AML compliance reaches up to .83 as a percent their total of assets, compared to larger firms, which see costs up to .08% of total assets. These costs...Read More

Walmart and PayPal are teaming up to provide financial services and products to customers via a cash in, cash out service. The service features an exclusive fee of $3 per service. This is the first time PayPal mobile app users will be able to take cash out of their PayPal account in a brick-and-mortar environment, in addition to being able to load cash into their PayPal balance at Walmart...Read More

BNP Paribas has selected Earthport, charging it with providing ACH cross-border payment services. Damien Godderis, Head of Payment Networks – Payments and Receivables Cash Management, at BNP Paribas, said: “We are committed to providing the best service and options to our customers. Earthport supports us in doing this through the global reach of its payment network, which means our customers have access to established as well as emerging markets...Read More