Ant Financial has finally managed to make its mark in a significant European first. The Chinese financial services giant has agreed to buy UK payments group WorldFirst in a deal worth around $700 million, and after WorldFirst was forced into a rapid fire sale of its US assets.

MineralTree, the Accounts Payable and Payment Automation solution provider, has expanded its platform integration to include all major card providers—delivering new value to middle-market businesses by optimizing their entire Accounts Payable process. 

Limitless, the UK-based inventor and provider of a SaaS platform offering AI and crowd sourced customer service solutions, today announces that it has successfully concluded the first phase of a Voice of Customer (VoC) programme with leading credit card provider, NewDay. 

With the world’s largest public transport gathering, Transport Ticketing Global, over for another year and our feet firmly in 2019, it seems apt to reflect on the changing global vision set at this year’s event for the future of public transport. Or perhaps more accurately, its evolution into the world of mobility services. 

Nearly one in five institutional investors (19%) anticipates that digital assets will be regularly traded and invested in by 2021, according to findings from the Global Blockchain Business Council - the leading association for the blockchain ecosystem.  

A further 28% believe this will happen in four or five years’ time, and 21% anticipate it happening between six and ten years’ time.

Mphasis (BSE: 526299; NSE: MPHASIS), an Information Technology (IT) solutions provider specializing in cloud and cognitive services, today announced the appointment of Andres Ricaurte as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Payments.

The SME market, for the majority of banks, is becoming a key target sector. In the UK, according to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), small businesses accounted for 99.3% of all private sector businesses at the start of 2017 and 99.9% were small or medium-sized (SMEs), while the combined annual turnover of SMEs was £1.9 trillion, 51% of all private sector turnover in the UK. SMEs act as a crucible of innovative new ideas and a cradle of entrepreneurship.

We are pleased to share with you the exciting news that football fans are now able to pay for their UEFA match tickets via Alipay on UEFA.com, the official website of the governing body of football in Europe. 

Maistro Plc, the AI-powered procurement marketplace for services, today announces the appointment of Neale Pritchard as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO).

Building on Maistro’s success of 2018, Neale will roll out the commercial strategy across sales and marketing to amplify Maistro’s position as a modern procurement technology provider. 

According to the World Payments Report, compiled by Capgemini and BNP Paribas, the global volumes of non-cash transaction volumes grew by 10.1%, reaching 482.6 billion between 2015 and 2016. In addition, McKinsey’s recent Global Payments 2018 report highlighted an 11% growth generated by payments, which topped $1.9 trillion in global revenue.