Following the breaking news today that Marriott’s Starwood bookings database has been comprised with half a billion people affected, it highlights the importance of organisations undertaking sufficient security posture checks to avoid such compromises. Marriott’s acquisition of Starwood in 2016 allowed it to utilise its Starwood customer database. Therefore, proactive due diligence during this acquisition period would have helped Marriott to identify the potential cybersecurity risks, and the impact of a potential breach.

Hartford InsurTech Hub, powered by Startupbootcamp, unveils the 2019 cohort of startups for its acceleration program. The chosen startups cover a wide range of abilities, from Property Insurance Claims to Peer-to-Peer Insurance (P2P). The selected ten companies exhibit a diverse range of technologies and insurance types.

The global decline in economic indicators is not a harbinger of a dangerous economic downturn, said Commerzbank chief economist Jörg Krämer on Friday in Frankfurt. “What we see here is just a slowdown of growth,” said Krämer.

On November 29, 2018, Eric Jing, Executive Chairman and CEO of Ant Financial, was appointed to the United Nations’ newly launched Task Force on Digital Financing of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The global task force will recommend strategies for large-scale digital finance flows to SDGs.

While artificial intelligence is still in its relative infancy in a number of areas, the UK government has recognised the potential for this technology to boost productivity in the financial and legal sectors. As a disruptive technology, AI has the potential to impact every sector. However, with £3 million set aside for projects in these specific industries, we will start to see quick recognition of benefits of this technology – from reduced processing times to cost reductions.

Challenger payments company, MuchBetter, today announced the release of its ‘Bank-in-a-box’ fully managed solution. Bank-in-a-box enables organisations to launch branded production wallets quickly and easily, letting them take control of their users’ payments experience and get to market faster with a sophisticated, compliant and low-cost financial product. 

Today, Ratehub Inc., which connects Canadians to the best financial products in the market, announced it has acquired MoneySense, one of Canada's leading personal finance media brands, from Rogers Media. 

Canadians who are sitting on the sidelines – unsure how to invest or what to invest in – today have a new digital investment advice service to help them build their financial futures: RBC InvestEase.