BT today announced the opening of a new customer experience showcase for its financial industry clients.

Located at its Adastral Park research and development hub in the UK, it demonstrates how digital innovations can be securely adopted throughout a financial services organisation to improve efficiency and customer experience while creating a platform to drive growth. 

Starling Bank, one of the new breed of mobile-only banks, has joined the Current Account Switch Service, bringing numbers up to just shy of 50 in just three and a half years, covering almost 100 per cent of the UK’s current account market.

Starling Bank, which aims to meet the banking needs of a generation of mobile users, is the newest brand to sign up to the service, which has successfully switched more than 3.5 million current accounts since launch.

Mizuho Financial Group, Inc. (President & Group CEO: Yasuhiro Sato, “Mizuho FG”), Mizuho Bank, Ltd. (President & CEO: Nobuhide Hayashi, “Mizuho Bank”), and Marubeni Corporation (President & CEO: Fumiya Kokubo, “Marubeni”) have agreed to start exploring for opportunities to provide new financial services utilizing FinTech in the ASEAN region.

MoneyGram (MGI) today announced that it has entered into an Acceptable Confidentiality Agreement with Euronet Worldwide, Inc. ("Euronet") (EEFT) so that it can further consider Euronet's unsolicited proposal made on March 14, 2017 to acquire all of the outstanding shares of MoneyGram Common Stock and Preferred Stock for $15.20 per share in cash on an as-converted basis (the "Euronet Proposal").

DH Corporation (DH.TO) ("D+H"), a leading provider of technology solutions to financial institutions globally, today announced that it is offering a cloud-based instant payments testing environment for the European market.

Suriname-based Trustbank is taking a big leap after signing a new licensing deal with Islamic software vendor Path Solutions to implement iMAL Islamic Banking & Investment System as its new core banking platform. This is a major breakthrough for the Kuwaiti vendor, as it’s the company’s first Islamic core banking software deal in the Americas. Path Solutions was selected after a comprehensive assessment of leading global solution providers by a senior management team from different business functions at Trustbank. 

Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR), an industry leader in automated, scalable and secure networks, and A2B Internet, a Dutch internet connectivity provider, today announced that A2B Internet has selected Juniper Networks® vMX Virtual Routers as the first Virtual Network Function (VNF) for its next-generation network platform.

Banking executives will gather to discuss the challenges of PSD2 implementation at a Congress in London tomorrow. Early signs point to a battle between financial services institutions and technology firms over the new legislation’s customer data access requirements. 

RegTech – a buzzword used commonly over the last year in FinTech and Finance - but what is it, who is it for and what does it do? Should you implement it? Do you need it? Just some of the dozens of questions I’ve been asked over the last six months and I thought I’d do a quick beginner’s guide as there are very little of those out there. And as to how to pronounce it – it’s Reg as in Peg, not your Great Uncle Reg who’s worth a fair wedge. Minor pet hate, I’ll get back to the point …

 ICS Financial Systems Limited (ICSFS), the global software and services provider for banks and financial institutions, announced that International Islamic Bank (IIB), a newly established bank in Iraq, has selected the multi-awards winning system ICS BANKS® ISLAMIC.