Markit  announced that the Federal Republic of Germany (the Bund), through the Federal Republic of Germany - Finance Agency GmbH (Finance Agency) acting as the central service provider for the country’s borrowing and debt management, is one of the newest customers of Markit Trade Manager.

The Bund will use Trade Manager to automate post trade processing of OTC derivatives positions, including managing the workflow it requires as a member of the EurexOTC Clear clearinghouse.

NCR Corporation, the global leader in consumer transaction technologies, announced today that Bankia Spain, the fourth largest bank in Spain, will upgrade its ATM network with more than 600 NCR SelfServ 34 and NCR SelfServ 32 cash deposit ATMs in the course of 2016. The decision was made following a thorough evaluation process, highlighted by NCR’s technical excellence and level of service. The upgrade project is part of Bankia’s long term strategic plan to improve customer experience as well as operational efficiencies by diverting typical transactions to its self-service channels.

Samsung Electronics today announced the partnership with Ant Financial Services Group, parent company of Alipay, to expand Samsung Pay in China. A simple, safe and easy-to-use mobile payment service, Samsung Pay works virtually anywhere you can swipe or tap a card. Users will now be able to use their Alipay account on eligible Samsung mobile phones with Samsung Pay.

FIME today announces its latest partnership with Alhamrani Universal Co Ltd. in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Issuing and acquiring banks in KSA can now access FIME’s full range of test tools, consultancy, training and testing services directly from Alhamrani Universal. Banks will benefit from the close support network delivered by a regional partner in local languages and currency.

INSIDE Secure  a leader in software security solutions for mobile and connected devices, today announced that financial institutions can now select INSIDE Secure’s MatrixHCE, a VisaReady, approved mobile banking and payment solution, to easily and confidently rol

OpenFin, the financial industry's leading provider of HTML5 runtime technology, expanded its global management team with two senior appointments in London. Cecilia Harvey joins OpenFin as Director of Account Management. Leigha Ruiz assumes the role of COO Europe. The new appointments will enable OpenFin to scale as it continues its rapid growth with deployments at 44 sell-side firms and over 250 buy-side firms.

Sapiens International Corporation, a leading global provider of software solutions for the insurance industry, with a growing presence in the financial services sector, announced that Anadolu Insurance Company (Anadolu), a private insurer operating in Turkey, has expanded its strategic relationship with Sapiens.

Wirecard reports a partnership with the London based startup Curve to introduce a new payment solution. Curve allows people to connect up an unlimited number of bank cards into one physical payment card, accepted everywhere. It is supported by a mobile app that gives people a clearer picture of their payments putting them back in control. The card and smartphone app solution is supported by Wirecard's technology, ensuring global usage of the Curve card and bank-level security protection.

I was at a really interesting conference on APIs and PSD2. The event was very light on PSD2 but it did allow me to test out my thinking about the future of banking aggregation. In this blog I’m going to refrain from littering it with PSD terms and just put across my thoughts.

BITA risk is pleased to announce that it has won its 3rd consecutive Wealth Briefing European Award. At a gala awards dinner held last night at The Guildhall London BITA won best Risk Profiling Solution for 2016. This follows on from it winning the same category in 2015 and Risk Management Solution in 2014.