Khaleeji Commercial Bank (KHCB), one of the leading Islamic banks in Bahrain, has officially announced its readiness for open banking services today, making it the first bank in Bahrain and the MENA to be fully compliant with the CBB’s directives.

FSS (Financial Software and Systems), a global payments technology company, today, released a report titled – India Payment Trends 2018, that highlights key Indian consumer payment trends in 2018 and analyzes their spending habits and patterns.  FSS Payment Gateway processed 58% of India’s e-commerce transaction value amounting to USD 32.7 Billion.

The key highlights from the report include:

The Swedish company, Cyclebit, has signed a global partnership agreement with Tangem. Tangem smart note holders will soon be able to use their crypto for retail payments through more than 200,000 POS terminals within Cyclebit network.

The terms of the agreement will simplify purchase of  Tangem notes for individuals, and reload crypto into Tangem notes via the Cyclebit payment terminals and network. This will lead to a global increase in crypto usage.

According to a survey of industry leaders, ‘Utilizing technology to perform day-to-day finance processes’ was rated as the top challengeof the year (SSON, 2019). As organizations begin to realize the value-driving potential of technology, the extent to which finance leaders prioritize this will determine whether their organization will gain or lose its competitive edge.

Banks no longer want merely to comply; they want to compete and win. Due to the post-crisis reporting obligations mandated by regulators globally, financial institutions have spent the past decade investing in improvements to their regulatory data management and reporting processes. Banks are discovering that this data represents a kind of raw material that can be used to add value to their core banking activities, and that now is the time to leverage it.

Wolters Kluwer’s Finance, Risk & Reporting (FRR) business has released research showing that the vast majority of banks active in Singapore are still in the data gap analysis stage of preparing for upcoming regulations MAS 610 / 1003 - with 76% of banks surveyed stating that they still in the preparatory phase.

 Ivalua, a leading provider of global Spend Management cloud solutions, today announced that it has raised $60 million in growth equity funding to further accelerate its rapid growth. This capital raise values the company at a ‘unicorn’ level of more than $1 billion, making Ivalua one of only a handful of unicorns founded in France.

CryptoCompare, the leading provider of cryptocurrency data and indices, today announced that Thomas J Lee, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Fundstrat Global Advisors, will be giving the afternoon keynote speech at this year’s CryptoCompare Digital Asset Summit, taking place on the 12th June in London.

 KnowBe4, the provider of the world’s largest security awareness training (SAT) and simulated phishing platform, today announced the acquisition of CLTRe —pronounced “Culture”— a Norwegian company focused on helping organisations assess, build, maintain and measure a strong security posture. CLTRe will continue to operate as an independent subsidiary of KnowBe4, and service customers globally.

 PrePay Solutions (PPS), subsidiary of Edenred, the global leader in payment solutions for the working world, is powering the Rugby Football Union’s (RFU) gift card programme.

In partnership with Voucher Express, a specialist gift card provider, PPS is launching a one-stop closed loop gift card that can be used for purchases at the England Rugby Store. The new gift programme includes both physical and digital cards.