New York-based financial magazine Global Finance announced The Innovators 2016 - Islamic Finance. The magazine has ranked Path Solutions a 2016 Innovator in Islamic Finance for its innovative iMAL Islamic banking platform.

“NetApp technology allows us to be nimble and react quickly to the often volatile changes in the energy sector,” said Hercu Rabsatt, director of infrastructure and service management, Mansfield Oil. “NetApp has been a key partner in helping us revolutionise our infrastructure for competitive advantage, tying our technology to our business strategy and remediating areas of risk. We’ve had zero downtime for our core business applications since moving them to NetApp ONTAP software. We can always service our customers.”

Suvidhaa Infoserve, a leader in the digital payments and remittances industry with 35 million unique customers, has entered into a tie-up with MobiKwik, India's largest independent mobile payments network that connects 30 million users with over 75,000 retailers.

The tie-up will enable customers of MobiKwik to recharge their mobile wallets from any of the 90,000+ Suvidhaa outlet across the country by depositing cash. This will overcome the barrier of recharging the wallet via credit/debit card or netbanking.

Wirecard Card Solutions Ltd, a Wirecard Group company, is the card issuer of Norwegian-based prepaid programme manager Paygoo. Paygoo have recently launched their first prepaid reloadable MasterCard following the previous launch of their MasterCard Gift Card programme earlier this year. The cards can be purchased and loaded throughout Reitan Convenience, one of Europe's largest convenience store chains including the retail brands 7-Eleven, Shell and Narvesan, offering instant issue at extensive point-of-sale outlets as well as online.

Canadian FinTech start-up ChangeJar, Inc., today launched ChangeJar Mobile, the first mobile app that lets users receive or pay with change from everyday transactions using their smartphones. Just launched at select Ottawa-area cafes and merchants, ChangeJar Mobile supports and improves – instead of replaces – cash transactions by making them simpler, faster and more convenient.

Raisin, the Pan-European online deposit marketplace, has launched www.raisin.fr for customers in France, in French language and with dedicated French customer support.

KinnerjaPay, a digital payment and ecommerce platform, today announced that it has partnered with Bitcoin Indonesia to accept the bitcoin currency for transactions conducted on its platform.

The partnership makes KinerjaPay the first ecommerce portal in Indonesia authorized to accept and transact Bitcoin across its platform, essentially enabling Bitcoin owners to convert the virtual currency to Indonesian Rupiah to pay their bills, transfer money, or make purchases in the Company's ecommerce market.  

Global Shares today announced the appointment of Mike Baker as Head of Business Development, EMEA.

Mike, who will join the company in July 2016, brings over 25 years of experience in the implementation, management and administration of equity compensation plans to the role. Prior to joining Global Shares, he most recently served as Director EMEA, Sales at Solium Capital UK Ltd.

I was just sent a press pre-release copy of The Pulse of Fintech, the quarterly global report on Fintech VC trends published jointly by KPMG International and CB Insights.  The findings are quite interesting this quarter and show that, after a significant pullback in funding in Q4 2015, mega funding rounds have lifted quarterly investment into VC-backed fintech companies by over 150 percent in the first quarter of 2016.

Taiwan Futures Exchange (TAIFEX) and Deutsche Börse Market Data + Services signed a market data partnership agreement, under which Deutsche Börse will act as the licensor of TAIFEX market data and information products to all international clients. Therefore, clients will be able to benefit from the state-of-the-art licensing services offered by Deutsche Börse, which already functions as a licensing partner for a whole range of trading venues around the globe such as BSE India, Irish Stock Exchange and Bulgarian Stock Exchange.