B2B digital payments integration specialist, Adflex, today announces that its contract to deliver push payment services to leading residential developer L&Q has been extended until July 2020.

Within the last decade there has been a pattern of people quitting their jobs in big financial services firms to launch start-ups, often in partnership with technologists similarly intent on shaking up a niche area with new technology.

FinTech start-ups are appearing across the industry. FinTech “seeks to improve and automate the delivery and use of financial services”. Revolut, Transferwise and Funding Circle are examples of new, tech-led companies looking to bypass banks by streamlining the business of making payments, currency transfers and lending.

ACA Compliance Group (ACA), a leading provider of governance, risk, and compliance advisory services and technology solutions, today announced enhancements to ACA’s trade blotter review analysis offering. Available today, this new automated trade blotter review tool is designed in response to challenges faced by SEC-registered investment adviser clients in keeping pace with the SEC’s enhanced use of technology to detect insider trading, market abuse, and other potential misconduct.

CryptoCompare, the leading provider of cryptocurrency data and indices, and Nasdaq, a leading global provider of trading, clearing, exchange technology, listing, information and public company services, today announced a strategic partnership to launch a cryptocurrency pricing product, the Nasdaq/CryptoCompare Aggregate Crypto Reference Prices. The product will be made available on Quandl, a Nasdaq owned leading-edge data platform and the premier source for financial, economic and alternative datasets.

As many as 25 banks in seven European countries have reached the first milestone for PSD2 compliance on time, via the PSD2 compliance solution and services from equensWorldline SE, European leader in the payments and transactional services industry and a subsidiary of Worldline.

Payments leader Klarna has today entered several new verticals — joining forces with healthcare payment specialist Finance 4 Group, to revolutionise payments in the veterinary, optical and dental industries. The new partnership means practices signed up to Finance 4 Group will now have access to Klarna’s Slice it, credit account solution.

CryptoCompare, the leading provider of cryptocurrency data and indices, and BitMEX, the world's most advanced cryptocurrency derivatives platform, today announced a partnership to deliver a definitive, real-time cryptocurrency futures dataset to institutional investors via the Refinitiv Eikon terminal.

The BitMEX dataset, sourced from the largest and most liquid cryptocurrency futures marketplace in the world, will be delivered to Refinitiv via the CryptoCompare contributions conduit and integrated into Eikon.

Since MiFID II was implemented at the start of 2018, financial markets have struggled to adapt to the new and rigorous regulatory requirements. Recently, high profile cases have brought the consequences of non-compliance into the spotlight, with UBS and Goldman Sachs both receiving fines of £27.6m and £34m respectively, for misreporting their data.

UniCredit has today announced a collaboration with FinDynamic, an Italian fintech company offering dynamic discounting programs, as it seeks to enhance its working capital offering for corporate clients.

As part of the agreement, UniCredit has also taken a minority equity stake in the business – highlighting the bank’s willingness to partner with the right fintechs in order to drive innovation.

How easy is it for cyber criminals to get past weak passwords? How do they do that?

‘Brute force attacks’ are a common tactic used by cyber-criminals. These attacks use automated software to guess as many combinations as quickly as possible. Short passwords under 9-12 characters are particularly vulnerable to these attacks.