BT today announced the global launch of “BT Assure Ethical Hacking for Finance”, a new security service designed to test the exposure of financial services organisations to cyber-attacks.

The wealth of valuable and sensitive personal data held by financial organisations, such as retail and investor banks and insurance companies, makes them among the most attractive targets for malicious hackers and cyber-criminals. This risk has intensified in recent years as more and more retail financial services move online and electronic trading is on the rise.

ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW), a leading global provider of electronic payment and banking solutions, is spotlighting several new industry initiatives and achievements within its Transaction Bankingportfolio, which offers end-to-end processing for commercial treasury management and 

Customers who have an iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus or Apple Watch will be able to add their M&S Debit and Credit Cards into Passbook, and use Apple Pay at contactless terminals in the same way they would use a contactless card.

At the start of the year, Deloitte’s Banking Outlook report predicted that in 2015, banks may finally be at the point of boosting profitability, and stepping out of the turbulence of the past six years. With new flight plans set and underway, the banking sector has continued to focus on working faster and smarter to deliver much needed efficiencies.

Spent a great few days in Madrid last week at the International Trader Forum. The event brings together key figures from the buy and sell-side to debate the current and future likely shape of the industry. One of the key predictions this time was the rise of a new type of sales trader. One that could do all the relationship stuff of before, but was also armed with new tools that enable them to source liquidity in size and provide real colour on any given trading situation.

Paysera, a global payments system that enables real-time international payment acceptance, and Alpha Payments Cloud, connecting transaction, risk and commerce vendors with merchants and financial institutions on one platform, have today announced a new partnership.

With the world’s attention turning to the post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda later this month, the MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth, in collaboration with News Deeply, today launched the Inclusion Hub, an innovative pop-up content portal featuring original reporting and educational content on advancing susta

 Colt today announced the addition of TraderServe to Colt PrizmNet, a financial services extranet connecting providers of financial content to Capital Markets firms. TraderServe will provide access to Algoguard - the leading validation engine for MiFID II compliance - via PrizmNet from next month. The service will be available to all Capital Markets participants who require the ability to demonstrate compliance for algorithm testing under MiFID II, irrespective of location.

 RIMES, the leading provider of managed data services for the buy-side, today announced it has added ChinaBond to its catalogue of more than 150 data partners. With over 50 indices, a partnership with ChinaBond demonstrates RIMES’ ever-increasing provision of data sources across asset classes globally.

A new study commissioned by BCSG has revealed that the relationship between retail banks and their small and medium sized business (SMEs) customers is weakening. The research demonstrates that the shift to digital services has increased the risk of switching financial service provider and that banks must move towards a model that drives engagement through business critical insight and services to defend against SME churn.