Atom will be pioneering the use of biometrics in the UK banking industry, leading the way with face and voice biometrics as core credentials to log-in to your bank. Atom is the UK’s first bank designed for digital, offering easy and convenient banking via an app, due to launch in 2016.

A personalised approach is at the heart of what Atom will offer, starting at the very first step of opening the ‘virtual doors’ of the bank. Face and voice recognition will be two key ways in which customers will be able to identify themselves to access their money and make financial transactions.

Emergent Payments, a global payments company specializing in providing a total solution for emerging markets around the world, today announced the launch of its office in India and Jumpstart India -- a complete local solution to help global businesses capitalize on a $19 billion eCommerce opportunity.

Financial IT speaks to Tom Robinson, Chief Operating Officer & Co-Founder, Elliptic at Sibos 2015

Bloomberg L.P. announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Barclays Risk Analytics and Index Solutions Ltd. ("BRAIS"), a leading provider of benchmark and strategy indices, portfolio analytics, risk and attribution models, and portfolio construction tools.

Kount Inc. (“Kount”) and CVC Capital Partners (“CVC”) announced today that the CVC Growth Fund will provide an $80 million growth equity investment to Kount, a leading provider of online and mobile fraud detection and prevention solutions. The investment will enable Kount to accelerate product innovation, expand its global footprint, and enhance customer support services.

Fiserv, Inc., a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, announced today that 13 credit unions implemented the Portico(R) core account processing platform with integrated solutions from Fiserv in 2015. Consistent with previous years, credit unions continue to rate Fiserv highly on post-implementation surveys, demonstrating strong appreciation for the efficiency and flexibility that Portico delivers.

Global Payments, a leading worldwide provider of payment technology services, announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. (NYSE: HPY), one of the nation's largest payment companies.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) today announced that it will fundamentally transform how it interacts and provides services to customers by building a new Digital Studio with consulting services from IBM (NYSE: IBM).

Three reports have been at the front of my mind this week. The first report being BCBS 239, which essentially requires organisations to implement a robust data integrity framework. I won’t bore you with the entirety of BCBS 239, but to pull out a couple of principles:

Principle 2 requires a bank to design, build and maintain a data architecture, and if the same data is held in more than one model then “there should be robust automated reconciliation procedures where multiple models are in use.”

blur Group plc (AIM:BLUR), the world's first enterprise services platform and marketplace, is pleased to announce that Tim Allen has been appointed to the blur Group Board as Chief Financial Officer with immediate effect.  Tim Allen joined blur Group on 20 July 2015 from Cambium Networks where he held the roles of Chief Financial Officer and VP Finance.

In addition, Barbara Spurrier will step down from her role as Director of Financial Reporting on 31 December 2015. Barbara Spurrier will continue as Company Secretary.

Commenting, Philip Letts, blur Group CEO, said: