Ÿ   On average, Chinese tourists who took part in the survey visited 2.1 countries or regions in 2016-2017, and expect to visit an average of 2.7 countries or regions in 2018. Chinese tourists exhibit stronger purchasing power than non-Chinese tourists, spending an average of USD 762 per person towards shopping on their most recent overseas trip. Non-Chinese tourists comparatively spend an average of USD 486.

CA Technologies (NASDAQ:CA) today announced the results of a global study of 1,279 IT and business leaders, including 466 across six countries in Europe, which reveals that 76% of UK organisations agree agile and DevOps deliver greater business success when implemented together than each on its own.

Genesys (www.genesys.com), the global leader in omnichannel customer experience and contact centre solutions, has completed the acquisition of privately held Altocloud Ltd., an industry-leading cloud-based customer journey analytics provider.

Barclaycard has developed ‘Dine & Dash’, a new solution to bypass the traditional bill-paying process in restaurants, which will be unveiled with a consumer trial at high-street chain Prezzo. In a bid to make life easier for staff and customers alike, servers no longer need to deliver the tab or handle transactions at the table – guests can simply walk out after eating.

Following a significant uplift in enquiries from financial advisers looking for new ways to outsource investment management, technology-led discretionary investment manager, PortfolioMetrix has expanded its business development team with the appointment of Bruce Ely-Johnston.

Starling Bank, one of the new breed of mobile-only challenger banks, has joined Bacs Payment Schemes Limited (Bacs); the bank becomes the latest participant to offer access to systemically important payment methods, Direct Debit and Bacs Direct Credit, to its commercial customers from today (19 February). 

Santander UK, via its merchant acquiring partner Elavon, will from the spring enable its business customers to join the growing European networks of well-known Chinese payment wallet providers, across e-commerce solutions.

Through Elavon, Santander customers will have the option to accept these Chinese payment methods (including UnionPay and other relevant Chinese fintech companies which offer these services) via their own websites from early 2018. Elavon plans to expand this functionality across its POS solutions, which already accept UnionPay, by the end of 2018.

Trulioo, a leading global identity verification provider, is revolutionizing identity verification with the implementation of its newest product – Mobile ID.

European cybersecurity company Nixu announced today the launch of the 2018 Nixu Challenge. The Nixu Challenge gives participants an opportunity to test their skills in various technical cybersecurity puzzles.

Accuity, the leading provider of financial crime compliance, payments and counterparty know-your-customer (KYC) solutions, has embarked on a project to help payment solutions company, Lemon Way, to more efficiently identify financial crime and flag potentially high-risk customers. Lemon Way has chosen to implement Firco Compliance Link, an Accuity solution which will enable the business to streamline its financial crime compliance screening, improving transparency, auditability and efficiency during the onboarding of new customers.