Equifax, the consumer and business insights expert, has formed a new strategic partnership with Castlight, the leading financial capability company, to launch the first real-time affordability platform to support brokers and their clients with mortgage applications.

Kroll (“the Company”), a global leader in risk mitigation, compliance, security and incident response solutions, today announced the appointment of three new Managing Directors and two new Principals, enhancing the Company’s leadership team across the globe. Each of the following appointments became effective January 1, 2017.

S&P Global (SPGI) announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell Quant House SAS (QuantHouse) to a company owned by Pierre Feligioni, one of QuantHouse's original founders. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
QuantHouse provides end-to-end systematic trading solutions including ultra-low latency market data, algo trading development frameworks, proximity hosting and order routing to hedge funds, market makers, proprietary desks, brokers and sell-side firms.

 USA Technologies, Inc., a payment technology provider of cashless and mobile transactions in self-serve retail, today announced it plans to integrate its MORE. loyalty and payroll deduct platform with Apple Pay, for use at up to 300,000 machines nationwide. Following the integration, unattended operators will be able to offer an enhanced experience to their customers using Apple Pay, which is transforming mobile payments with an easy, secure and private way to pay that’s fast and convenient.

FinancialForce, the leading Cloud ERP vendor on the Salesforce Platform, today announced the appointment of Tod Nielsen as Chief Executive Officer and President. The appointment comes on the back of another strong year in which the company grew more than 40% and is rapidly approaching the $100 million annual revenue run rate milestone.

After what could euphemistically be called a tumultuous year for the world, it is time to cast our minds forward to what 2017 holds. Here are five trends and challenges that will affect the world of banking in the next 12 months.

Regulation will consume everyone’s thoughts (and budgets)

 Synechron Inc., the digital, business consulting and technology services provider, has today announced its predictions of top Financial Services Trends for 2017, supported by survey data from TABB Group. The survey of over 200 senior-level, global financial services business and IT decision-makers across the U.S. U.K. and Europe found 38% of respondents placed Regulation as their top priority for 2017, followed by Data Management (14.4%), Systems Integration (10.6%), Artificial Intelligence (AI) (9.7%) and IT Business Transformation (8.3%).

Baker Hill, a leading provider of technology solutions for common loan origination, risk management, relationship management and smart data analytics, will launch its new platform, Baker Hill NextGen™, on January 31, 2017.

Whether you are looking to strengthen SME Banking market analyses, forecast & segmentation strategies for risk-resilient lending; advance business models to ensure growth in unsecured lending portfolios; minimise SME banking operational expenses, or improving SME banking retention strategies through products & services offerings, look no other than SME Banking Asia Summit, the best SME Banking conference that gathers leaders from Award-winning commercial banks and policy-makers from central banks.

Introduction

Self-awareness is always beneficial in both the scenarios: business and life. The more you know about yourself, the better you are at adapting and preparing for changes.

Blockchain is no different. This article is an attempt to uncheck the unknowns in the world of Blockchain.

Where are we?

In my view, we have neither crossed the gulf, nor have adapted the wide installation phase of this technology. To emphasize further, we can review the progress of work that we have done till now.