So, now I’m two months into my role at Platform Black and enjoying every minute of being part of a vibrant and record breaking ‘alternative’ finance team. However, it has occurred to me again and again that the term ‘alternative’ is something that doesn’t sit well, as it often carries negative connotations which are misleading and inaccurate. The emergence of platforms such as Platform Black has given rise to a complementary source of finance that can sit comfortably alongside other mainstream sources.

Today, Publicis.Sapient, part of Publicis Groupe [Euronext Paris: FR0000130577, CAC40] and the world’s largest and most advanced digital transformation platform, announced that it has acquired Vertiba, a Gold Salesforce Consulting Partner specializing in the delivery of Salesforce cloud solutions for data-driven marketing, sales and customer service.

Aquila Capital today announces that it has launched a strategy giving institutional investors access to a portfolio of direct and fund investments in infrastructure. With a minimum investment period of two years, the strategy's investment horizon is significantly shorter than that of classic infrastructure investments.

SIX announces that it has successfully gone live with its new, fully integrated, real-time Repo trading facility – the CO:RE trading platform. This all-new trading facility provides single-point access for over 160 Swiss domestic and international clients to the multi-currency Swiss repo market. The new platform replaces a legacy system with state-of-the-art technology and capabilities.

SIX x-clear Ltd and Baymarkets are pleased to announce that they have entered into an agreement whereby the support, maintenance and continued development of the Clara clearing system has been taken on by Baymarkets.
 

iBE TSE announces appointment of Stuart Hall as digital practice lead.

Before joining iBe TSE Stuart held roles at several large consulting firms and has worked in large tier one retail banks and insurers, including, RBS, Lloyds, Barclays, Standard Life and Legal and General.His core focus is on setting up and leading digital practices that deliver tangible value back into the business through strategic transformation. At iBe TSE, Stuart will be responsible for building out the consultancy’s FinTech and digital ecosystem. 

When I log into my online banking, I always find two account balances: the one I see on the screen (duh) and the one I need to figure out in my head (ouf!). The worst part is, neither of them are accurate or satisfactory...

“How much money do I have? I mean, really?” I'm asking when I log in. Keyword: really!

A new prepaid Visa card from Wirecard is now available to consumers: mycard2go is easy to top up and can be used in a variety of scenarios, for example online, in high street retailers or abroad.

 Ullink, a global provider of market leading electronic trading and connectivity solutions to the financial community, today announced the launch of a pioneering Drop Copy and Trade Risk Mitigation service that will provide buy-side and sell-side firms with a ready-to-use solution to reduce trading risk, improve client service and help meet regulatory requirements.

AccessGateway, the UK-based international real-time payments systems gateway solutions provider, has announced that they will work with The Clearing House (TCH) to link U.S. banks to a new national real-time payments system under development.

The announcement comes several weeks' after TCH revealed that work had commenced on building the industrial-strength payments system, which once completed will be the most comprehensive real-time payments system ever developed.