Offline and online commerce are rapidly converging.  Brick & mortar retail models are rapidly changing. And consumers are increasingly demanding simple, fun and secure experiences no matter where or when they shop.

The European Banking Authority recently drafted the latest technical standards for the Payment Services Directive II (PSD2), which serves as the legal foundation for a new cross-EU payments market. In 2016, European e-commerce sales are expected to increase 17% to €183 billion and the use of payment service providers (PSPs) is increasing significantly.

ABBYY®, a leading provider of technologies and solutions to action information today announced theavailability of ABBYY Smart Classifier on the European market. The new product enables businesses to leverage and act on complex,unstructured information by delivering highly accurate document classification. Based on Compreno®, ABBYY’s innovative natural languageprocessing (NLP) technology, Smart Classifier quickly organises large repositories of documents according to both statistic and semanticanalysis of content. Once classified, information is ready for search and retrieval, automated rout

With the goal to increase the value and usability of loyalty points, Verifone (NYSE: PAY), a global leader in payments and commerce solutions, and FIS(NYSE: FIS), a global leader in financial services and payments technology, announced a collaboration to enable consumers to pay with loyalty points linked to their credit or debit cards at the point-of-sale (POS).

 Equinix Inc., the global interconnection and data center company, today announced global financial cloud infrastructure provider, Beeks Financial Cloud, has deployed on Equinix's Cloud Exchange as it continues to expand its business globally.

Bloomberg today announced that HSBC Private Bank, and more than a dozen corporations and financial institutions, have adopted Bloomberg's MARS Collateral Management and reconciliation solution to comply with new variation margin requirements for non-centrally cleared over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives.

WEX Inc., a leading global provider of corporate payment solutions, today announced that it has signed a new agreement with Enterprise Fleet Management in Canada. The partnership supports Enterprise's growth in the Canadian market through WEX's Canadian fleet capabilities.

Radware®, a leading provider of cyber security and application delivery solutions ensuring the digital user experience for applications in virtual, cloud, and software-defined data centres, has found that hackers and companies agree on one thing: Data is lucrative.

Freelancers and micro-business owners who have yet to register their business with HMRC are rapidly running out of time if they want to get their Self Assessment tax return submitted to HMRC, FreeAgent has warned.

 The company - who provide award-winning cloud accounting software for freelancers, micro-businesses and their accountants - has warned business owners that failing to register for Self Assessment in the next week will mean they are unlikely to be able to submit their tax return on time, and will be fined by HMRC.