“At the outset let me begin with an apology to those few readers who may take offence to the title, as it (kind of) challenges the existing steady state. However, let me also acknowledge that the true purpose behind penning down these thoughts is to challenge the status quo, and re-wire some of the beliefs surrounding value creation in the post trade space”.

Inorganic Growth cannot be the silver bullet.

Detroit FinTech Bay announced today that it will welcome the Detroit Blockchain Center as a resident within its space in TechTown Detroit. Additionally, Detroit FinTech Bay’s first board of advisors is announced. Entrepreneurs and leaders from financial institutions, corporations, community groups and academia make up the group’s membership.

The world's very first AI-powered invoice checker has been launched in a bid to help both large and small organisations minimise the risk of invoice fraud. The innovative new Check an Invoice tool uses artificial intelligence to 'learn' how to recognise incompatibilities and inconsistencies in invoice data, identifying and highlighting potentially fraudulent information that can easily be overlooked by corporate finance teams.

DappRadar, the leading global platform for discovering and analysing blockchain-based decentralised applications (“dapps”), announces it has raised $2.33 million in seed funding. The investment is led by Naspers, a global internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world, through its Naspers Ventures division, with participation from Blockchain.com Ventures and Angel Invest Berlin. DappRadar will use the investment primarily for R&D, developing new functionality to help the business expand its service and reach the next stage in its growth.

Maven Capital Partners (“Maven”), one of the UK’s most active SME finance providers, has led a £750,000 equity investment into innovative ecommerce platform, Aero Commerce Ltd (“Aero”).

Mastercard today announced the appointment of Jennifer Erickson as executive vice president, Global Communications, effective September 23. She will lead corporate, internal, external and digital communications, reporting to Raja Rajamannar, the company’s chief marketing and communications officer and president, Healthcare.

Global consulting firm Protiviti has opened a new Protiviti iNN^TM innovation site in London, following on from the opening of sites in New York and Chicago earlier this year. The London site will serve as an in-house incubator and accelerator of ideas and next-generation solutions for clients and the firm. The presence of the site within Protiviti’s London office significantly differentiates Protiviti’s innovation culture, reminding employees and clients of the firm’s commitment to innovative solutions on a daily basis.

Torstone Technology, a leading provider of post-trade securities and derivatives processing, today announces that Credit Suisse Securities (Canada) Inc. has selected its award-winning post-trade processing platform, Inferno, to replace the firm’s existing third party outsourced platform and service.

Luc Gueriane, formerly Head of Business Development at Wirecard, has been appointed by Moorwand as its Chief Commercial Officer. Moorwand is a dedicated BIN sponsor, issuer and acquirer that provides Electronic Money Services and access to VISA, Mastercard, JCB and UnionPay card schemes to payment providers.