Tough competition, stringent security requirements and a business environment that demands instant results means that the financial industry has never been more reliant on safe, infallible software to support its success. From back-office applications with records loaded with highly-confidential information to smart, customer-facing apps, leading financial institutions must ensure their software systems are not only innovative, but efficient, secure and failsafe, to ensure they get things right.

IdentityMind Global, pioneer in digital identities for risk management and digital commerce, announced today a partnership with award-winning ONPEX, The Online Payment Exchange. The partnership will offer ONPEX and IdentityMind Global clients a single integration to manage credit card payments, fraud prevention, risk management and anti-money laundering compliance.

Virtusa Corporation (NASDAQ GS:VRTU) today announced that its India subsidiary, Virtusa Consulting Services Private Limited (“Virtusa India”), has acquired all of the outstanding shares of Polaris Consulting & Services, Ltd. (“Polaris”) (BSE: POLARIS NSE: POLARIS MSEI: POLARIS) held by Mr.

Vermilion Software (‘Vermilion’), the leading global supplier of client reporting and communications software, announces that it has gone live with leading Danish private bank, Jyske Bank A/S (‘Jyske Bank’).

Founded in 1967, Jyske Bank is the third largest Danish bank in terms of market share. A critical factor for Jyske was finding a provider that could individualise reporting for its high-net-worth clients.

Financial technology innovation company R3 CEV has successfully trialed five distinctblockchain technologies in parallel in the first test of its kind. The trial represented the trading of fixed income assets between 40 of the world’s largest banks across the blockchains, using multiple cloud technology providers within R3’s Global Collaborative Lab.

The trial marked an unprecedented scale of institutional collaboration between the financial and technology communities exploring how distributed ledgers can be applied to global financial markets.

 Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: BR) was awarded "Best Risk Management Software Firm" at the Hedgeweek Global Awards 2016, which are voted on by industry participants and recognize excellence among hedge fund managers and global service providers.

So, now I’m two months into my role at Platform Black and enjoying every minute of being part of a vibrant and record breaking ‘alternative’ finance team. However, it has occurred to me again and again that the term ‘alternative’ is something that doesn’t sit well, as it often carries negative connotations which are misleading and inaccurate. The emergence of platforms such as Platform Black has given rise to a complementary source of finance that can sit comfortably alongside other mainstream sources.

Today, Publicis.Sapient, part of Publicis Groupe [Euronext Paris: FR0000130577, CAC40] and the world’s largest and most advanced digital transformation platform, announced that it has acquired Vertiba, a Gold Salesforce Consulting Partner specializing in the delivery of Salesforce cloud solutions for data-driven marketing, sales and customer service.