IFAD, a United Nations agency, today recognised WorldRemit’s role in shaking up the global money transfer industry.

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), which focuses on agricultural development and financial inclusion, named WorldRemit winner of its 2015 private-sector award for Best Practice in Remittances for Development, ahead of fourteen other nominees.

The Emerging Payments Association (EPA) today announces the launch of its incubator for early stage payments companies, the Catalyst. The Catalyst provides access to investors, workspace, mentors and commercial partners in association with MasterCard and The Bancorp. The Catalyst beneficiaries – its ‘Rising Stars’ - are new entrants to the fintech industry, mostly founder-owned and with a combined investment and revenue between £0.5m and £2m in the last twelve months.

ClusterSeven, a leading provider of solutions to manage corporate spreadsheets and other end-user computing (EUC), today announced that it has secured new finance from private equity firm Azini Capital Partners LLP (“Azini”). Azini has acquired 100% of ClusterSeven and will be providing additional investment to promote high quality and wider customer engagement.

 Elliptic, the bitcoin analytics and security firm, today announced a breakthrough in bitcoin transaction monitoring and compliance. In an industry first, the company has launched ‘The Bitcoin Big Bang’, an interactive visualisation that plots the emergence and interconnectivity of the key players in bitcoin since its genesis in 2009.

MasterCard today announced the appointment of two Co-Presidents for the Asia/Pacific region – Ling Hai and Ari Sarker; as well the creation of two sub-regions – North East Asia and Australasia (NEAA) and South East Asia and South Asia (SEASA).

Mitek today announced that it has completed the acquisition of IDchecker, a global provider of cloud based identity document verification and facial recognition solutions.

Global advisory, fund administration and fiduciary services firm Maitland have received approval from the Financial Conduct Authority for its 100% acquisition of Phoenix Fund Services, a UK based company offering bespoke outsourced fund administration services to investment managers in the UK and offshore. The transaction is now complete with effect from 1 June 2015.

".bank” will launch into general availability on June 24 at 00:00:00 UTC for all eligible members of the global banking community. Managed by fTLD Registry Services, the private company owned, operated and governed by banks, insurance companies and their respective trade associations, “.bank”, is a new communications channel, fortified with enhanced security measures that exceed those of most existing and new gTLDs.  During the initial sunrise registration period, there were more than 700 applications made for “.bank” domains.