Bloomberg L.P. announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Barclays Risk Analytics and Index Solutions Ltd. ("BRAIS"), a leading provider of benchmark and strategy indices, portfolio analytics, risk and attribution models, and portfolio construction tools.

Kount Inc. (“Kount”) and CVC Capital Partners (“CVC”) announced today that the CVC Growth Fund will provide an $80 million growth equity investment to Kount, a leading provider of online and mobile fraud detection and prevention solutions. The investment will enable Kount to accelerate product innovation, expand its global footprint, and enhance customer support services.

Fiserv, Inc., a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, announced today that 13 credit unions implemented the Portico(R) core account processing platform with integrated solutions from Fiserv in 2015. Consistent with previous years, credit unions continue to rate Fiserv highly on post-implementation surveys, demonstrating strong appreciation for the efficiency and flexibility that Portico delivers.

Global Payments, a leading worldwide provider of payment technology services, announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. (NYSE: HPY), one of the nation's largest payment companies.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) today announced that it will fundamentally transform how it interacts and provides services to customers by building a new Digital Studio with consulting services from IBM (NYSE: IBM).

Three reports have been at the front of my mind this week. The first report being BCBS 239, which essentially requires organisations to implement a robust data integrity framework. I won’t bore you with the entirety of BCBS 239, but to pull out a couple of principles:

Principle 2 requires a bank to design, build and maintain a data architecture, and if the same data is held in more than one model then “there should be robust automated reconciliation procedures where multiple models are in use.”

blur Group plc (AIM:BLUR), the world's first enterprise services platform and marketplace, is pleased to announce that Tim Allen has been appointed to the blur Group Board as Chief Financial Officer with immediate effect.  Tim Allen joined blur Group on 20 July 2015 from Cambium Networks where he held the roles of Chief Financial Officer and VP Finance.

In addition, Barbara Spurrier will step down from her role as Director of Financial Reporting on 31 December 2015. Barbara Spurrier will continue as Company Secretary.

Commenting, Philip Letts, blur Group CEO, said:

Pendo Systems (Pendo) provider of international world-class financial products saw skyrocketing growth in 2015. The Company was widely recognized by industry leaders and publications including ACQ5 Global Awards which named it Capital Markets Technology Provider of the Year and SWIFT’s InnoTribe Showcase, which awarded Pendo the title of Top Innovator.

With the holidays upon us, shoppers are looking to conveniently check off their gifting lists. MasterCard cardholders from New York to California and everywhere in between now have the opportunity to leverage a simple and secure mobile payment option this holiday season as several new banks and credit unions are now live with Samsung Pay.