What if we make money truly global, stable and secure? That’s Libra’s ambition and I’ve got to hand it to the guys at Libra. Having announced their idea to create a global currency last summer, and then see it ripped to pieces by regulators, they’re back.

Yes, it’s Libra 2.0.

What’s the difference between 1.0 and 2.0?

FIS™ (NYSE: FIS), a global leader in financial services technology, announced today that fintech startup Bambu has selected FIS’ next-generation Modern Banking Platform to power a new digital banking solution for U.S. unbanked and underbanked.

More than thirty organizations in the insurance, banking and finance, public and business sectors, as well as associations and institutions, including Guardia di Finanza (the Italian finance police), are participating in the national " Fideiussioni Digitali” (Digital Sureties) project promoted by CeTIF, SIA and Reply, in collaboration with the Bank of Italy and IVASS, to digitize the management of sureties using blockchain technology.

BMLL Technologies, the data engineering and analytics firm, today announced a collaboration with OpenFin, the operating system (OS) for finance, to build their Derived Data desktop application on OpenFin’s OS. 

New research released today from venture capital fund MMC Ventures, shows that while 2,700 blockchain companies have been created in the UK since 2008, only 9% of these  have been equity funded. Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) had been the ‘go-to’ source of funding for blockchain companies until early 2018.

Two of the world’s largest tech giants, Apple and Google, recently announced that they are collaborating on a COVID-19 tracking system to enable contact tracing - a measure that could pave the way for an exit strategy for those countries enforcing stringent lockdown measures. This new feature will be added to all Apple and Android mobile operating systems, to later enable government run apps to track physical proximity between phones (although the NHS has said it will use a different model).

SAP’s corporate factsheet boasts that 77% of the world’s transaction revenue touches a SAP system. That’s a lot of payments. Its ERP platform and digital supply chain solutions ‘help companies of every size and industry manage their supply chains digitally.’

Allica Bank, the business bank on a mission to empower small and medium-sized businesses to succeed, has today announced the appointment of Steve McGregor as Head of Application Engineering.

Steve will build the first in-house, fully immersed software engineering team at Allica Bank. The new team will be the vanguard of the bank's development of digital financial services and tools, all designed specifically to meet the needs of small and medium-sized businesses by being straightforward and putting the customer first.

Curve, the banking platform that consolidates multiple cards and accounts into one smart card and even smarter app, has today announced a new expanded partnership with Mastercard that sees Curve become a principal member of scheme.

Hamburg-based FinTech company Deposit Solutions has announced that it has reached new milestones in 2020. The company’s Open Banking platform has now transmitted a total volume of 25 billion euros in savings deposits, up from 16 billion euros 12 months ago. The growth was driven by the strong B2B business, with banks such as Deutsche Bank, Merck Finck Privatbankiers, M.M.Warburg as well as comparison portals and other partners using the platform to offer their customers third-party savings deposit products.