Australia’s fastest-growing online stockbroker, OpenMarkets, today announced the successful upgrade of its back office technology to NRI Financial Solutions for Broker Dealers provided by the Nomura Research Institute (NRI), a leading global provider of system solutions and consulting services.

The transition sees OpenMarkets become the first Australian broker to use NRI’s state-of-the-art and robust back-office solution for processing equity trades giving it a clear advantage in features, scalability and automation.

Trax, a leading provider of regulatory reporting, trade matching and capital market data services, is among the first to be approved by the UK Financial Conduct Authority as an Approved Publication Arrangement (APA) for transparency and reporting services under the MiFID II regime.

Alipay, the world's largest online and mobile payment platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group ("Ant Financial", "Ant"), is now available for Mainland Chinese tourists at all 242 Starbucks branches across Malaysia. Chinese tourists can find a nearest Starbucks through the in-app Discovery platform, and pay for their drinks in RMB via Alipay. Alipay and Starbucks Malaysia are also launching a marketing campaign to celebrate the partnership together with Chinese consumers.

FinancialForce, the leading Cloud ERP for the new services economy, today announced the appointment of Gordy Brooks as Chief Financial Officer. Brooks, former Citrix GetGo and Aerohive Networks CFO, will help guide the company’s aggressive growth strategy.

LUZ Soluções Financeiras (“LUZ”), a Brazilian supplier of financial technology founded in 1999 and active across Latin America, has partnered with ULLINK, the global provider of connectivity and electronic trading solutions, to provide turnkey solutions for clients of its front to back solutions. The new, extended trading platform will enable LUZ clients to connect to the Brazilian equities and exchange traded derivatives markets.

 Aquila Capital has acquired a wind energy project in Denmark near Kappel on Lolland with an installed capacity of over 25 MW. With the acquisition, Aquila Capital’s transaction volume in the wind sector has now surpassed 1,000 MW.

Since bursting into general awareness through bitcoin, the technology called blockchain has extended its influence far beyond that starting point. This paradigm-shifting technology is revolutionizing how business is conducted by providing an entirely new way to exchange assets. As a result, blockchain is finding a home well beyond bitcoin.

It wasn’t long ago that two-factor authentication met the security needs of most organizations. In the good old days of laptops and desktops, the use of two separate factors was enough to ensure a satisfactory level of security. In the current era of mobile devices, advanced hacking and advent of the digital identity, two-factor authentication can no longer suffice. Multifactor authentication models were designed to mitigate the shortcomings of 2FA, but does it really deliver increased security?

Azimo, a digital disrupter of traditional money transfer services, extends its cash pick-up service enabling customers in the Philippines to collect money minutes after money transfer is made.

In a revolutionary step for the Philippines market, Azimo's direct service ensures that money sent from any of its 22 send-countries across Europe, will get to recipients typically within just 1 hour and can be collected on any day that is convenient for them-even over a weekend- making it the safest and most convenient way to send and receive money.