Royal Bank of Scotland has appointed Vanessa Bailey as chief risk officer (CRO) of its ring-fenced bank, it said in an announcement. She will be based in London. Vanessa Bailey Bailey was formerly interim chief risk officer, NatWest Markets, and assumed her new position on August 20. She will report to group chief risk officer Bruce Fletcher, and Ross McEwan, the chief executive of NatWest Holdings. The new role will also see her joining the NatWest Holdings executive committee and chairing the NatWest Holdings risk executive committee.

Red Deer, the financial technology company dedicated to enhancing the performance of active investment managers, and Cappitech, a leading provider of regulatory reporting and intelligence solutions for the financial services industry, today announced a partnership to deliver a combined MiFID II and MAR compliance solution for investment managers.

The United Kingdom’s management consulting industry has grown by 8.3% last year, its second fastest rate of growth since the financial crisis. Although less optimistic than a year ago, three out of four UK consulting firms expect demand for management consulting services to increase in the next 12-24 months.

 Finastra announced today that TONIK, the first licensed digital-only bank in Southeast Asia, has selected Fusion Essence in the cloud to power its end-to-end core banking capabilities. The move will support TONIK as it launches its retail deposit and customer loans services in the Philippines, giving it agility and the ability to scale quickly.

Stratis, an enterprise blockchain technology company, announces the winners of its latest hackathon, the Stratis Smart Contracts Challenge. Attracting nearly 200 participants and 13 high-quality submissions, the online hackathon produced a range of smart contract applications spanning finance, law, identity, trade, supply chain, charity, healthcare and gaming.

US$10,000 First Place: Cirrus Swap

JCB International, Co., Ltd., the international operations subsidiary of JCB Co., Ltd., and Nordic-based payment service provider Nets Group, today announce the wider enablement of JCB payment acceptance by Nets merchants in Finland.

This latest strategic expansion initially enables over 18,000 businesses across Finland to accept JCB payments through the Nets Merchant Services platform. This will provide JCB’s growing Russian and Japanese cardmember base with the opportunity to shop with ease and peace of mind whilst they visit the country.

Finastra has been named best global trade finance software provider by Global Finance at the Trade Finance Awards 2020. The accolade was announced at an awards ceremony held at the BAFT Global Annual Meeting in Frankfurt last week. It recognizes Finastra for its innovative technology in the trade and supply chain finance space.

There are two different approaches to gain business success. One worked in the recent past and the other works in the digital present.

Marketing age

The appearance of open banking created an immediate concern within the banks as they would now have to share customer data, competition from challenger banks, etc. Even though it is a well-known statement these days that “innovation will come with or without the banks” most banks (if not all) are still thinking that innovation will not affect them, and open banking will just fade away. As I wrote earlier this year, open banking is not going anywhere any time soon.

Rabo Frontier Ventures (RFV), the strategic investment fund of Rabobank, has contributed to a £7.5 million funding round in online UK mortgage broker Trussle