Proposals by seven UK banks to levy a per transaction fee for for certain Faster Payment transactions as a means to provide a long-term, sustainable funding arrangement for the reimbursement of APP scam victims, have been knocked back by governing body Pay.UK following an industry-wide consultation.

Protiviti and the International RegTech Association (IRTA) have released the findings of a global market study they conducted to investigate the effectiveness of current ‘Know Your Customer’(KYC) processes. The study reveals an urgent need for more effective industry alignment to accelerate the digitizing of KYC processes and greater use of shared platforms.

Avaloq, the leading cloud platform and service provider for banks, wealth managers and investment firms, has successfully closed the acquisition of Zurich-based Derivative Partners AG, the number one independent information and data provider for structured products and derivatives in Switzerland. The deal was first announced in July this year. Derivative Partners will continue to operate as an organizational entity, with all staff retained. Detailed financial terms are not being disclosed.

Abacus Group, a leading provider of hosted IT solutions and services for alternative investment firms, is pleased to announce that four of its managers have been selected as finalists in the 5^th Annual Markets Choice Awards: Women in Finance, presented by Markets Media Group.

 Ledger, the global leader in security and infrastructure solutions for digital assets and blockchain applications, today obtained a crime insurance policy covering digital assets secured by the Ledger Vault platform.

Nomura Research Institute, Ltd. (NRI), a leading provider of consulting services and system solutions, announced today they will launch Shingan AD, a new service providing institutional investors with Japanese alternative data and data analysis on December 1^st, 2019

The use of alternative data in investment decision-making is growing rapidly. Sourcing, cleansing, and preparing large amount of data for analysis presents a big challenge for institutional investors who are looking for untapped alpha.

 Caspian, the full-stack crypto trading and portfolio management platform for institutional investors and sophisticated traders, today announced it has partnered with Tagomi the leading global digital assets prime broker.

The two industry captains are set to shake up the crypto market with a new standard of crypto trading. The partnership will create the safest, most efficient and easy to access full end to end trading solution for institutional investors participating in crypto currency markets.

The payments industry is seeing a massive global surge in the implementation or modernisation of Immediate Payment systems. These systems challenge the status quo, and when used effectively create real opportunities for financial institutions to improve service and/or develop new business opportunities.

In Ovum’s 2018 Payments Report (2018 Global Payments Insight Survey: Cross-vertical) there were some telling statistics demonstrating the direction of travel for the payments and banking industry:

There are widespread misconceptions about Artificial Intelligence (AI), including its powers and what it can and can’t do. Which means that potential users may have unrealistic expectations of what they will see when they’re presented with AI. For some, it conjures up images of robots, while others expect it to be able to solve all problems and automatically understand numerous manual processes and tasks without training or configuration. The truth is that while AI has advanced exponentially over the last decade, it is still really in its infancy.