SAP SE and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) (NYSE: NTT) announced a partnership enhancement in co-innovation, global partnership and global reference.

Varo Money,  a mobile-only banking start-up that will help consumers gain greater control of their financial lives, and The Bancorp Bank have signed an agreement whereby The Bancorp Bank will provide private label banking services to support Varo mobile checking and savings account products.

Varo has also signed agreements with Galileo Processing, Inc. to provide payment and transaction processing services; Socure, Inc. for digital identity verification services; and Cachet Financial Solutions Inc. for mobile check deposit. 

TWINO Group, one of Europe’s fastest growing consumer lenders, announced today that it has reached an important milestone of €300 million in issued loans. The company, which has been operating since 2009, provides unsecured consumer loans for private individuals in ten countries, including Poland, Russia and Georgia.

Draft legislation for the implementation of the PRIIPs Regulation was rejected by Members of the European Parliament today. The unusual move throws doubt on the implementation timetable but does not in itself reduce industry pressure to prepare for compliance by 31 December 2016 as the timeline of the regulation remains in force. While the vote has invited speculation that delaying PRIIPs would be a natural next step, any delay would result in PRIIPs arriving as firms prepare for MiFID II. As such, today’s decision leaves no room for firms to relax their PRIIPs compliance efforts.

MindLink, the leading provider of secure Chat Enabled Collaboration (CEC) tools for global businesses, has announced the results of an independent study it commissioned regarding the use of chat & collaboration technology within the financial services sector.

The qualitative evaluation found that Chat and Collaboration applications are used by virtually every firm yet a lack of clear ownership of these tools and associated compliance risks are major concerns.

With robo-advisors receiving so much press as of late, it makes sense to listen to what one authoritative, unbiased voice is saying on the technology and its future.

Synechron Inc., a global consulting and technology services provider specializing in the financial services market, has today announced the acquisition of Cityfront Group, a systems integrator for capital markets platforms such as Murex, Calypso and Summit. The acquisition expands Synechron’s existing global systems integration business, which offers the market a unique combination of end-to-end services that includes business and technology consulting, and systems integration.

Object Trading, a provider of global, multi-asset trading infrastructure, announced today that it is the first vendor providing market access to the ASX to have conformed to the upgraded ASX 24 (futures) New Trading Platform (NTP) from Cinnober, due to go live in early 2017.  ASX 24 market participants need to connect to the NTP in order to continue trading.  Clients using Object Trading’s Direct Market Access (DMA) Platform can adapt to the NTP upgrade with ease.

The Competition and Marketing Authority (CMA)’s “Open Banking Revolution” promises challenger banks a golden opportunity to steal business from their more established competitors, thanks to their supposedly more modern approach to technology and customer services. However, challenger banks are missing an open goal by making the same customer service mistakes as the old guard, GMC Software has warned. While challenger banks focus on customer service and offering modern services such as mobile apps, their services have been delivered in a fragmented manner.

Thomson Reuters announced the appointment of Kristin Peck to the company’s Board of Directors effective immediately.

“Kristin's strategic and innovative business model experience has focused on global markets and deep customer interactions,” said David Thomson, chairman of Thomson Reuters. “Her passion for talent and leadership development bodes well for our future. We surely welcome Kristin's perspective to our boardroom.”