The IA’s fintech innovation hub and accelerator, Velocity, and Brussels-based fintech ecosystem B-Hive have signed a partnership designed to boost fintech innovation across the asset management industry by promoting pan-European collaboration.

The partnership signed by Fabian Vandenreydt, Executive Chairman, B-Hive and Peter Harrison, Chair of the IA Board, signals a commitment to a closer relationship between the two organisations with the aim of building a strong international Fintech ecosystem. 

In line with its 2018 strategic and operational plan, SETL the London based institutional payment and settlement infrastructure provider using blockchain technology, has focussed its resources on successfully developing and funding the establishment of the ID2S and IZNES platforms in Paris. Of particular note, SETL made significant capital contributions to ID2S, the regulated CSD. In October 2018, the platform successfully completed its T2S connection testing and was fully approved under CSDR.

National Settlement Depository (NSD), Russia’s central securities depository (CSD) has become the first CSD to sign up for SWIFT’s gpi service – a rapid cross-border payments service that provides real-time payments tracking and transparency on bank fees and foreign exchange rates. 

 An advice gap exists in the UK, having started in the wake of the 2013 retail distribution review (RDR). This resulted in advisers making their charges transparent for consumers – and putting people with low wealth off seeking advice.

CloudMargin, creator of the world’s first and only collateral and margin management solution native to the cloud, today announced that Banco do Brasil in London, a branch of one of Latin America’s largest banks, has deployed the CloudMargin platform for its global collateral processing.

RingCentral UK Ltd., a leading provider of global enterprise cloud communications and collaboration solutions and a wholly owned subsidiary of RingCentral, Inc. (NYSE: RNG), released a new report entitled Overcoming the Digital Disconnect: How Disjointed Communications Technologies Are Letting Customers Down – and How to Solve it.

After targeting PPI repayments and penalties for Payday Loan Companies, consumer Claims Management Companies (CMCs) will now set their sights on financial organisations that have suffered data protection breaches, customer experience expert Quadient has warned. In the wake of regulation changes, CMCs are currently focusing their attention on the Payday Loan Companies – speeding the collapse of Wonga and others. However, before this avenue is exhausted, and we reach the August 2019 deadline for making PPI claims, they will already be searching for fresh targets.

Following a year of investment and development, Avaya Holdings Corp. (NYSE:AVYA)  today announced the opening of its new Customer Experience Centre (CEC) in Guildford. The state-of-the-art facility will act as the UK’s leading showcase of the latest contact centre, communication and collaboration technology that is enabling the digital workplace and excellent digital customer experiences.

Ant Financial Services Group (Ant Financial) and Jiangsu-based Hoperun Information Technology (Hoperun) today unveiled its Distributed Core Banking Platform (DCBP), a next generation banking product which is designed to help financial institutions shift their business models from transaction-oriented to customer-oriented. The platform also aims to help financial institutions tackle digital challenges, including distributed development, financial product management and accounting liquidation.

The challenge

The company always faces seasonal spikes in website traffic and needed to ensure its online platform was stable and fully functional during busy periods. This was especially true at Christmas where workloads could increase by 5x to respond to customer demand and fluctuations in data traffic were creating network instability and having a negative effect on the customer experience.