The ability to significantly improve its digital banking offerings to customers and to deepen its strategic technology relationship led Columbia, Mo., based Landmark Bank to select FIS^™ (NYSE: FIS), a global leader in banking and payments technology as well as consulting and outsourcing solutions, as its new digital banking provider.

The CECL (Current Expected Credit Loss) regime requires banks to consider expected prepayments for determining the Life of Loan. Prepayments are expected to play a critical role in ‘rightsizing’ Allowance for Loan and Lease Losses (ALLL) under the CECL regime. The cascading effect could be the need for new internal controls over the ALM systems, necessitating integration of timing of charge-off expectations with prepayments.

 Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the global interconnection and data center company, today announced the new Hibernia Express Cable system which has the lowest latency route between New York and London, is now directly connects  the Equinix NY4 and LD4 data centers, providing unprecedented round-trip latency transmission of sub-58.95ms. 

NetOTC, a provider of innovative risk solutions, today announced the launch of NetOTC Bilateral, the end-to-end bilateral market infrastructure for the margining of non-cleared OTC derivatives.

NetOTC Bilateral is connecting to Euroclear’s Collateral Highway in an effort to answer the market demand for greater transparency, resilience and addressing the market need for funding, capital and operational cost efficiencies.

 Gresham Computing plc, a leading provider of real-time financial transaction control and enterprise data integrity solutions, today confirmed a further four new customers will implement its flagship Clareti Transaction Control (CTC) platform. The deals span Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, and take the total to six new CTC customers in the second half year period.

EQ Investors (EQ) the boutique wealth manager led by John Spiers, the founder of Bestinvest, today unveils Simply EQ, a new online and telephone-based investment advice service. Designed for private investors seeking portfolio management at affordable rates, Simply EQ offers regulated advice and access to a range of investment solutions managed by EQ’s highly experienced investment team.

The call for retail banks to reinvent their business models has never been more urgent. On one hand, banks are challenged by shrinking revenues and struggle with achieving operational cost efficiencies. On the other, they must face the rising threat of FinTech startups that are attacking their core businesses, with the likes of Lending Club, Funding Circle, TransferWise and Venmo quickly becoming household names.

The mounting cyber security skills shortage in the industry poses a significant threat to organisations’ defence strategies. For APMG International, high quality, rigorous and professional Information Assurance training schemes hold the key to closing the skills shortage gap and bolstering businesses’ cyber security defences.