In increasingly competitive markets, the payment experience has emerged as a critical factor to grow market share. Yet a new Global Payments Insight Study of consumer finance, higher education, insurance and other billing organization executives—conducted by ACI Worldwide and leading market research and advisory firm Ovum—found that most organizations lack the payments innovation necessary to win consumers.

Principle findings of this study include:
Executives not prepared to innovate

Great Western Bancorp announced today that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of HF Financial Corp. (“Home Federal”). The acquisition of Home Federal increases Great Western’s assets to approximately $11.3 billion, and will add 23 locations to its 155 branch network with a new presence in North Dakota and Minnesota.

Great Western will be changing the existing Home Federal and Infinia branches over the next few weeks in connection with its systems conversion, which is expected to be completed on June 10, 2016.

HID Global®, worldwide leader in secure identity solutions, today announced it has been selected by CityPoint to streamline security and management systems for its 35-storey office building used by thousands of people on a daily basis in London,.

MiFID II, taking things a strident step forward.

Of all the regulation that has been issued by the pan-European regulatory body, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) since the financial crash, MiFID II looks set to have the greatest impact in terms of investment protection, governance, third country, markets and processing. 

Pacific Commerce Bancorp parent company of Pacific Commerce Bank, and ProAmérica Bank  announced that their respective shareholders have approved the merger of the two banks. The transaction is expected to close as of May 20, 2016.

 OpenLink, the global leader in trading and risk management solutions for the energy, commodities, corporate and financial services industries, and consultancy Baringa have launched a whitepaper exploring best practice in treasury management for commodity intensive corporates. The paper looks at the business case for integrated treasury and commodity risk management.

ClusterSeven, the leading provider of strategic software for End User Computing (EUC) management, has today launched its new company website. Optimised for all mainstream mobile devices, web browsers and personal computers; this new website offers visitors an enhanced user experience including a modern look and feel, simple and intuitive navigation functionality and most importantly, timely and informative content.

 AxiomSL unveiled that  Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) (London) plc has decided to extend its use of the AxiomSL platform to cover the reporting required as part of the Common Reporting Standard (CRS)/Automatic Exchange of Information (AEI) and the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The decision will allow the bank to avoid the increased infrastructure costs often associated with the introduction of a new regulation or tax requirement.