NatWest has today announced plans to launch a new virtual account platform in partnership with leading Nordic software company Tieto, to offer its SME and corporate customers a new client monies and virtual account management service.

Framework, a specialist global solutions vendor for Private Equity (PE) and Real Estate (RE) investments, has made a senior hire to its leadership team.

J-P Durandeau has been appointed as Head of Product to focus on product development and delivering the best service to Framework’s clients. J-P is the latest of several key senior hires in recent months, underscoring Framework’s ongoing commitment to meet the demand for improved investment data and service management in the PERE sector.

Capgemini announced today that it has joined the Hartford InsurTech Hub. Powered by Startupbootcamp, the Connecticut-based hub is a global  accelerator set up to help the insurance industry advance its innovation goals by scouting technology solutions provided by startups around the world to meet the industry’s core business challenges and aspirations.

Western Union (NYSE: WU), a leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement, has teamed up with 

MONEY 20/20: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced IBM Blockchain World Wire, a real-time global payments network for regulated financial institutions, is officially accessible in a growing number of markets.   

Designed to optimize and accelerate foreign exchange, cross border payments and remittances, World Wire is the first blockchain network of its kind to integrate payment messaging, clearing and settlement on a single unified network, while allowing participants to dynamically choose from a variety of digital assets for settlement.   

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the premier post-trade market infrastructure for the global financial services industry, today announced that Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB) has selected its multi-award winning Global Trade Repository (GTR) service in order to meet their regulatory obligations under the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR), which is expected to apply from April 2020. 

DER Touristik UK has appointed travel technology company, CodeGen, to provide its end-to-end reservations system, TravelBox, to power premium long-haul travel brand Kuoni in the UK market as part of its digital transformation strategy. 

The TravelBox platform, which enables travel companies to draw content from multiple sources and create bespoke, multi-centre holiday itineraries, will replace Kuoni’s current system later this year.

A bill to secure government use of IoT technologies was introduced to the United States Congress last week.

FIS™ (NYSE: FIS), a global leader in financial services technology, and Worldpay, Inc. (NYSE: WP; LSE: WPY), a global leader in eCommerce and payments, announce that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement. This combination greatly expands FIS’ capabilities by enhancing its acquiring and payment offerings and significantly increases Worldpay’s distribution footprint, accelerating its entry into new geographies.

As the threat landscape continues to evolve rapidly, it now includes increasingly sophisticated, zero-day malware that traditional security approaches can no longer keep pace with. As a result, security researchers estimate that the cost of cybercrime will outpace security spend by over 16X, reaching $2.1 trillion by the end of 2019. Staying ahead of today’s accelerated cybercrime trends requires adding artificial intelligence (AI) to an organisation’s network security strategy.

The rise of artificial intelligence