The United States, Japan and 10 other Pacific Rim nations on Monday reached final agreement on the largest regional trade accord in history, teeing up what could be the toughest fight President Obama will face in his final year in office: securing approval from Congress.

Chicago-based Rival Systems (Rival), a trading software company established earlier this year, announced today that Cardinal Capital Management (Cardinal) has deployed the new Rival Trader front-end derivatives trading and risk management platform.  Cardinal’s agricultural market making group is using the low latency platform for all of its trading activities.

We’re seeing little let up in the volume of fines imposed on firms that fail to meet regulatory requirements. Earlier this month, Finra, the brokerage industry’s self-funded regulator, reported fines of $37.5 million for the first half of 2015. While this is slightly down on the same period last year, the figure remains the second-highest total since 2008. Analysis suggests the end of this year may well see an increase in activity.

Malayan Banking Bhd’s (Maybank) Myanmar operations, which were launched today, aimed to focus on transaction banking, corporate lending and treasury services as part of its objective to establish itself as a leading cross-border bank in Myanmar.

In a statement today, the bank said its Yangon branch, which has a registered capital of US$75 million (US$1 = RM4.40), was officiated by Central Bank Myanmar Deputy Governor U Set Aung and Bank Negara Malaysia Deputy Governor Datuk Muhammad Ibrahim.

Bonitasoft, the fastest-growing provider of business process management (BPM) solutions, today announced that it has been named amongst 

 Ripple, provider of global financial settlement technology (formerly known as Ripple Labs), today announced that Santander InnoVentures – Santander Group’s $100 million fintech venture capital fund - has joined its 

 Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley today announced they have joined with SmartStream to create a newReference Data Utility. The SmartStream Reference Data Utility, informally known as Securities Product Reference Data (SPReD), will provide services for instrument reference data normalization and validation across all asset classes. The founding banks will also become clients of the utility.

 Linedata (NYSE Euronext: LIN), the global solutions provider dedicated to the investment management and credit industries, announced today the latest version of Linedata Longview for Asset Managers, which offers an integrated approach to portfolio management, trading and compliance. This release provides substantial enhancements to streamline the workflows for portfolio managers and improve their operational efficiencies. 

 Novatel Wireless (NASDAQ:MIFI) (the "Company"), a leading provider of solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT) and inventor of MiFi^® technology, today announced that it has completed the acquisition of DigiCore Holdings Limited, a leading provider of advanced machine-to-machine communication and telematics solutions marketed globally under the Ctrack® brand, based inSouth Africa. Details of the acquisition were first announced on June 18, 2015.

Intertek, a leading quality solutions provider to industries worldwide, has won a third party inspection procurement contract for the South Oil Company in Iraq, a national Iraqi company responsible for all the oil and gas projects in southern Iraq. The multi-year agreement was recently signed. It is the first time SOC has appointed a third party inspection company to help ensure the quality and safety of all their projects, which are contracted to various oil and gas companies.