he digital tools that allowed the UK to switch to remote working in response to Covid-19 were already part of our everyday lives, writes Tim Hardcastle, CEO and co-founder of INSTANDA. The insurance industry should take note.

“The famous proverb “necessity is the mother of invention” – often incorrectly attributed to Plato – doesn’t hold true during this unprecedented period of the Covid-19 pandemic.

CRM start up, vcita, has partnered with Mastercard in Europe to launch “Business Unusual”, a complete learning and management solution specifically designed for micro and small businesses, helping them run more digitally.

The “Business Unusual” platform will help companies better manage and run their businesses by giving them a suite of tools that includes:

DEX and Exactpro Systems (Exactpro) are collaborating to ensure DEX’s digital asset platform is on par with the regulated capital market clients that Exactpro serves on a global scale. DEX has secured an in-principle approval from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of ADGM as a Multilateral Trading Facility and Custodian based in the Abu Dhabi Global Market, the International Financial Centre in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, announced that its customer and one of Sweden's largest banks, Länsförsäkringar Bank has won the 2020 Celent Model Bank Award for Core Technology Replatforming, for its successful core transformation powered by the TCS BaNCS™ Global Banking Platform.

Leading distributed solutions specialist Applied Blockchain has completed a £2 million funding round lead by Hong Kong based venture capital firm QBN Capital. The newly-injected funds will be invested in developing a platform using privacy enhancing technologies to help companies to collaborate and generate meaningful outcomes together, without having to share any of their data.

The world is in the midst of the largest remote working experiment it has ever seen, reinforcing the value of reliable data. More than ever before, we need to know where our data comes from and whether or not it can be trusted. We are bombarded with information on a daily basis across the various different communication mediums we use in our professional and personal lives. This news is then passed onto each other sequentially, through emails, WhatsApp messages and other apps and social media platforms, and the velocity is only increasing, particularly in isolation.

Leading LendTech company, DivideBuy, has launched a unique soft search credit check functionality that lets customers know whether they will be approved for interest-free credit purchases without affecting their credit score.

DivideBuy is one of the only companies that can offer this functionality thanks to its unusual position as both the technology developer and money lender.

TradAir, a trading technology company which empowers the financial community with trading, analysis, decision-making and workflow solutions announced today that it is live with a new service, TA1, to facilitate trading and liquidity in foreign exchange.

 Axyon AI, the leading AI provider for the asset management industry, has appointed Elena Bittante as independent board member. Axyon AI provides deep learning solutions that help asset managers deliver more efficient and innovative investment products. The company, which includes UniCredit S.p.A. and ING Bank N.V. among its investors, operates in close partnership with the renowned AI and computer sciences faculty at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.

Objectway, a leading software provider of wealth management digital solutions with customers distributed across four continents, announced the offer of a licence-free period to any new subscription to its digital offering committed to in 2020.

The initiative aims at helping Objectway’s customers mobilise their investment, address the digital gap and deliver best service to their own customers during this challenging period originated by the COVID-19 outbreak.