GBST Holdings Limited, a provider of securities transaction and fund administration software for the financial services industry, has entered into an agreement to provide Haitong International Securities Group Limited with an institutional middle office solution utilising GBST’s Syn~ platform. This implementation is expected to go live by the end of 2015.

Principia Partners, a solution provider for derivative and structured finance operations, launched pasVal, an online portfolio valuation, risk, and accounting management service.

The pasVal service is a web-based interface that leverages Principia’s 20+ years of derivatives expertise. Its valuations engine provides complete portfolio reporting to a wide range of derivative specialists who require sophisticated pricing and analytics without the burden of full-scale system ownership.

Already a long-time customer of Diebold, Incorporated's (NYSE: DBD) best-in-class services and technology, ALMA Bank, a New York-based financial institution, is introducing Diebold's innovative Mobile Cash Access software solution to enable consumers to initiate automated teller machine (ATM) transactions with a mobile device.

Atom Bank, the UK’s first digital bank, has selected SunGard as its integrated treasury and risk management platform.

I have been following the Symphony story with interest and the recent news that Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is looking to invest certainly got my attention. Is this the sound of the mighty Google taking its first lumbering steps into the world of capital markets, or just another of the many investments that Google makes? More importantly, what does this do to help Symphony?

Looking at the latest changes regarding accuracy of business clocks, now reincarnated as RTS 25, I noticed a number of interesting points in the text. Most importantly, the absence of the usual clause “…applies from 3rd January 2017″, with just the generic phrase stating that the rules will “enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication”. Is this an accidental omission, I wonder?

Ullink, a global provider of market leading electronic trading and connectivity solutions to the financial community, today announced that SinoPac Securities, a leading securities firm in the Asia Pacific region, has chosen Ullink’s low-latency Direct Market Access solution to access the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Singapore Derivatives Exchange, together with Ullink’s comprehensive pre-trade Risk Management solution UL Iris.

ICICI Bank, India’s largest private sector bank, launched a service to enable customers to make electronic payments from their smartphones at physical stores, e-commerce and other deliveries at home, radio taxis, and utility billers, among others.

This service is based on ‘mVisa’, a new mobile payment solution from Visa. ICICI Bank claims to be the first bank globally to launch a mobile app-based ‘mVisa’ solution for consumers and merchants.

-Avnet, Inc.

Rapid Addition, a leading provider of trading technology has entered an agreement to acquire the business, assets and employees of DET Technologies, a provider of low latency hub and monitoring software to support electronic trading. The acquisition will deliver a world leading, real-time platform for buy- and sell-side financial institutions.