Interviewees: Rich Wagner, CEO and Founder of APS (RW) and Tony Craddock, Director General of the Emerging Payments Association (TC)

Financial IT: Rich, could you please explain who and what is APS?

RW: Advanced Payment Solutions (APS) is not a bank.We are a digital platform that provides banking services. We have been in operation for over 10 years, and have a strong position in the UK. We are certainly the leading independent e-money issuer, issuing debit cards to consumers, SMEs and the public sector throughour partnership with MasterCard.

Cash flow issues can sometimes get the best of all of us, including small businesses. Life's realities – employees who need to be paid at the end of the day, supplies that have to be purchased before the job is done – can send small business owners scrambling. Immediate deposit availability can fill this important need.

While motorists have undoubtedly been pleased with paying less at the pump, slumping fuel prices over the past year have had a wide economic impact, bringing many experts to the conclusion that the old ways of doing things should from now on be relegated to the past.

Securely logging in to mobile banking just got easier for U.S. Bank customers with the release of an updated version of the U.S. Bank Mobile app for iPhone®. The new app gives customers an option to use Touch ID for faster, more convenient access to their money, combined with the security of a unique fingerprint to login.

Americans are quickly embracing EMV chip cards, just six months after the latest milestone in the migration timeline. While consumers increasingly dip their cards to pay in-store, progress has been made by both card issuers and merchants.

MasterCard provided an update on how its cardholders, partners and customers are adopting the safer, more secure EMV chip technology:

More than two-thirds – 67 percent – of U.S.-issued MasterCard-branded consumer credit cards now feature chips.

Wolters Kluwer has teamed with eOriginal^®, Inc., a provider of digital transaction management (DTM) solutions, to add eVaulting and eClosing capabilities to its Expere^® dynamic document solution to deliver end-to-end eClosing functionality for its banking customers. The integration will allow Expere users to utilize eOriginal’s extensible, plug and play digital mortgage platform.

Malauzai Software introduced the latest release of its mobile and Internet banking SmartApps™ for community financial institutions as part of its Mobile Only Experience™ (MOX) created to deliver consistency across all screens for consumers, businesses and branch employees. The latest enhancements include an updated design and user experience with expanded navigational tools, dynamic personalization and advanced money movement features.

Uphold, the cloud-based financial platform, is launching its services into India. Now, Uphold members - in any market - can instantly send money or make payments to anyone in India, redeemable directly through any Indian bank.

n the Internet Age when cross-border e-commerce is changing the landscape of world trade and economy, the international community has a historic mission to update global trade rules so that the trade regime can benefit more.

Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, on Wednesday proposed to build a fresh global e-commerce platform which could break down existing trade barriers and enable small traders to buy and sell across borders.