With many of the world's banks having reported results for the period ended Dec. 31, 2015, S&P Global Market Intelligence took a bird's-eye view of bank efficiency around the world by looking at cost-to-income ratios for institutions with at least US$10 billion in assets.

 BNP Paribas Securities Services, a leading global custodian, and SmartAngels, the leading direct investment platform, have taken a major step forward in crowdfunding history by signing a strategic partnership for the use of Blockchain technology. 

BNP Paribas Securities Services and SmartAngels will allow private companies to issue securities on the primary market and give investors access to the secondary market using Blockchain technology. The pilot scheme is due to be launched in the second half of 2016, subject to regulatory approvals. 

Recently, in New York City a group of internal communications professionals from some of the biggest finance firms in the world met to discuss the state of communications and enterprise social networks at their respective organizations. This followed close on the heels of a similar event in London.

There has been a lot of talk about how the LSE/DB1 merger might create a “too big to fail” clearing house. This seems to be missing the point somewhat as both LCH and Eurex Clearing are already too big to fail. Imagine the fallout if either of these were to go through some sort of disorderly meltdown – would the UK or German governments really just sit back and watch? The real point is that as a “buyer or seller of last resort” clearing houses are, by definition, too big or important to be allowed to fail.

The UK’s big banks have had a tough start to the year, with fears relating to global economic slowdown, the impact of the huge fines imposed by the FCA and the threat of more big regulatory changes all taking their toll.  Few if any of these factors, however, are affecting the performance of the UK’s so-called ‘challenger banks’.

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Opportunity Network have reached an agreement aimed at helping financial institutions provide a wide array of growth opportunities to their customers.

GoldMoney launches BitGold Business Accounts and merchant processing at Money 20/20 Europe, the world's largest FinTech event. BitGold, the only gold-based payments and savings platform, is transforming the global cross-border payment experience by enabling business owners, freelancers, and sole proprietors to request and accept business and consumer payments in vaulted-gold bullion, enabling instant cross-border value settlement and reducing risks and delays in global commerce.

IA Capital Group Inc., a venture capital firm focused on financial technology, is announcing the completion of five fintech investments over the past 12 months, including Credit Sesame, Crown Global Insurance, Marqeta, LiftForward, and a

Pivotal Payments, a provider of technology-driven global payment processing solutions, has licensed Lusis Payments’ TANGO platform to process point-of-sale (POS) payments. Pivotal Payments has been providing innovative merchant services for over a decade, and delivers efficiency and profitability to over 90,000 clients across a wide range of business verticals.

Retail Banking 2016, Booth #107 — Gryphon Networks, a sales intelligence service provider, and Belmont Savings Bank, a leading chartered Massachusetts bank, have successfully deployed Gryphon’s patented Sales Intelligence Platform to establish a data-driven approach to Bank Branch sales effectiveness and improve overall management operations.