Commenting on today’s positive UK economic data, Rupert Thompson, Chief Investment Officer at Kingswood, said: “UK retail sales bounced 5.4% in March ahead of the relaxation of lockdown restrictions, considerably more than expected. This encouraging news was reinforced by business confidence also beating expectations in April, with the composite Purchasing Managers Index moving up to 60.0, the highest level since 2013.

• Marco Distefano is appointed as Managing Director for Motor and Home at AXA Retail Insurance
• Marco joins from Aviva where he launched the Quote me happy.com brand 
• Anna Fleming appointed as AXA Retail Insurance’s Chief Operating Officer 
• Anna joins from the Motor Insurers' Bureau

To further push the digitalisation of trade finance in major trade hubs in the region, DBS Bank has expanded its offerings on Contour’s rapidly growing trade finance network to corporate customers in four key markets in the Asia-Pacific region (APAC).

Why was 2020 such a defining year for the payments industry?

I think we’d all agree 2020 was a year like no other. For every sector, digital transformation was accelerated, in fact, according to McKinsey, COVID-19 sped-up digital transformation plans by seven years. 

Instamojo, a full-stack solutions provider for MSMEs, today announced its first ever acquihire of Bengaluru-based virtual theatre and vernacular content platform, Showman. The acquihire will see the on-boarding of the founding member team of Showman. Kshitij Bhatawdekar, Cofounder & CEO of Showman joins Instamojo as Product Manager, while Rutveez Roopam Rout, Cofounder & COO of Showman joins as User Research Manager. 

Finastra today announced the availability of its Fusion KTP integrated global treasury management solution in the cloud. Existing customers are already in the process of migrating to Finastra’s cloud solution which is hosted on Microsoft Azure. Accessing Fusion KTP in the cloud will give users the opportunity to accelerate innovation and time to market, and the ability to transform their operations at scale.

IHS Markit now offers validated reference data on 2.8 million municipal bonds, delivering high quality terms and conditions from more than 55,000 issuers. This critical dataset includes 280 fields which are sourced from IHS Markit’s comprehensive new issue market data, issuer official statements and strategic data partnerships.

Recent market volatility continues to put pressure on fund managers, who must not only adapt to the post-COVID landscape but also demonstrate investment resilience and deliver returns to clients. 

Brightstar, the global leader of end-to-end device lifecycle management solutions and device protection, today announces significant growth with its specialist device repair business WeFix, claiming that average repair times are just 45 minutes, outperforming other repair services and delighting customers. 

WeFix, the UK’s only mobile repair service accredited by Samsung, has experienced its best performing year, with repair bookings up 75% year on year. This growth is buoyed by increasing customer demand and expanded partnerships with leading brands.