A collaboration on innovative point-of-sale (POS) payment acceptance based on internet technologies and value added services in Europe between the Wirecard Group and Alipay, a business of Ant Financial, a related company of Alibaba Group, is set to begin today.

Contrary to the conventional view of an American and by extension global economy bubbling with innovative small companies, the reality is quite different. Intellectual property, network effects, natural monopolies, expensive R&D, fleets of lawyers to litigate against potential rivals, and armies of lobbyists have created formidable barriers to new entrants to the U.S. and global economy. 

These are major reasons why the rate at which new businesses have formed in the U.S. has slowed markedly in recent years. 

The other day, a reputable digital banker asked me, “How many lives does PFM have?” I smiled.

Whereas Digital Money Management (also known as PFM, Personal Financial Management) in Europe is arguably on its second (or third) life, Asian banks have the opportunity to adopt next-generation PFM for the very first time, while simultaneously avoiding the errors of European banks.

Financial IT speaks to Michel Jacobs, EVP North America Market and Product Strategy, FIS at Sibos 2015 

Financial IT speaks to Kris Kubiena, Proposition Delivery Director, Vocalink at Sibos 2015 

Horizon Software, the leading provider of trading and algorithmic technology to the world’s financial and trading institutions, today announced that 2015 is set to become a record year for the company, achieving double-digit growth.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC)’s Omgeo subsidiary, the global standard for institutional post-trade efficiency, and SimCorp, the leading provider of investment management solutions and services, today announced that the first live repurchase agreement (repo) trade has been automatically processed in SimCorp Dimension and Omgeo Central Trade Manager^SM (Omgeo CTM) between

SWIFT’s African Regional Conference (ARC) 2016 will take place from 17-19 May 2016 in Mauritius. ARC, now in its 23rd year, brings together policy makers, industry leaders and the broader financial community from across the African continent. Typically attracting up to 500 delegates from around 40 countries, ARC is a unique forum for networking, education, discussion and debate.

Visa announced the launch of the first Visa Token Service in Asia Pacific with United Overseas Bank (UOB) the first bank to implement. The Visa Token Service is a new security technology that replaces sensitive payment account information found on payment cards, such as the 16-digit account number, expiration date and security code, with a unique digital identifier or "tokens" that can be used to process payments without exposing actual account details.