In October 2015 France adopted a national payment strategy designed to speed up the innovation process of developing new payment methods and to encourage the competitiveness of the French payments industry.

The implementation of the national payment strategy will help France as it strives to meet users’ needs, particularly in terms of increasing card acceptance for low value payments. A key focus to achieving this is through the development of contactless payments and other cutting edge methods of payment (i.e. mobile payments or those made through connected devices).

On 7-8 June, 2016, the 7^th International PLUS-Forum “Cards, Payments and Mobile 2016” will be held by the PLUS Journal in Moscow. The event is dedicated to the analysis of the current state of and prospects for the payment industry development in Russia and globally.

PLUS-Forum is one of a few events growing in popularity even during the current period far from being very favourable one. Over 1000 participants from Russia and other countries across the globe will attend the event this time.

Transparency-One, the supply chain risk management platform, today announced that SGS, the world's leading inspection, verification, testing, and certification company, has acquired a 20% stake in the company.  The company's financing is led by Jerome Malavoy, former founder and CEO of Trace One with participation from SGS.  The investment coincides with the spinoff of Transparency-One from Trace One, the global leader in private label product lifecycle management (PLM) software.

Consumer Demands for Supply Chain Transparency

Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, today announced that its dealer-to-customer trading venue, FXall, has again been named “Best multibank and independent platform” in this year’s Euromoney Foreign Exchange Survey for the 14th consecutive year.

This year, Euromoney’s annual quantitative and qualitative study of the FX markets is the result of a survey of more than 3,400 consumers of FX liquitdity, who represent a total FX consumption of $95 trillion in the 2015 calendar year.

OT (Oberthur Technologies), a leading global provider of embedded security software products and services, today announced the appointment of Muzaffar Khokhar as RMEA Regional President in addition to his current role as Business Director of the Financial Services Institutions business in the RMEA region.

Glory Global Solutions, a global leader in secure cash management solutions, today announced the launch of Ntegra™ Plus, an innovative desktop banknote counter/sorter that has been developed to enable enhanced processing of the Next Generation Australian banknotes.

With Australian Payments Clearing Association estimating that there will be 9.4 billion cash payments in 2018 and with banknotes being used in around 90 percent of cash payments, the processing of new banknotes that incorporate innovative security features presents a new and significant challenge.