Financial IT's interview with Fredrik Ulvenholm, CEO of Vilja.

Financial IT: Can you tell us more about Vilja and your background?

Bitcoin’s historic halving event on Monday underscores that the “long-term future of cryptocurrencies is secure”, says the CEO and founder of one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organisations.

The comments from deVere Group’s Nigel Green come as the world’s supply of Bitcoin was forever slashed on Monday. The highly anticipated halving event, occurring only every four years, means that less and less Bitcoin – which is limited to 21 million units - wiil now been mined.

Wirecard, the global innovation leader for digital financial technology, and Varengold Bank, a leading provider of FinTech financing, announced today the launch of a new strategic cooperation. Together, Wirecard and Varengold Bank will provide ambitious FinTechs looking to scale their operations with access to capital to refinance their loan portfolios, combined with a comprehensive set of white-label payment solutions.

Locatee, the leading workplace analytics solution that provides office utilisation intelligence for corporate real estate leaders and managers, today announced that it has secured $4 million in Series A funding.

Last year was rife withhype and speculation about open banking’s disruptive credentials, and it is easy to see why.

Open banking is essentially the practice of sharing financial information electronically, securely, and only under conditions that customers approve of.

Chatter about open banking persists because it is can be a significant innovation catalyst, enabling better user experiences, streamlining lending, automating accounting, and pioneering new payment options.

illimitybank.com, the illimity Group’s digital direct bank, is introducing the Payment Initiation Service (PIS) in Italy for the first time ever, a system which enables customers to make payments from accounts of other banks consolidated on its platform.

Strong growth in cashless payments as cards increasingly preferred for everyday transactions

Path Solutions, the market-leading provider of Sharia-compliant digital solutions to the financial services industry, today announces that Al Baraka Bank Sudan (“BBS”), a subsidiary of the strategic Bahraini multinational banking corporation Al Baraka Banking Group, has successfully completed the implementation of its new Business Intelligence solution on March 13^th.

BearingPoint RegTech, a leading international provider of innovative supervisory, regulatory and risk technology solutions (SupTech, RegTech and RiskTech), has won Sweden’s Finansinspektionen (FI) as a new customer for Abacus Regulator. The financial supervisory authority was looking for a service provider that could best help them to improve and streamline their data collection processes, validation, monitoring and analysis.