It is with great pleasure that my colleague Ali Mentesh and I, will be presenting at the IFINTEC conference in Istanbul on April 12/13. The conference, covering the financial technology space in the EMEA region with a particular focus on Turkey, aims to highlight the latest banking technology to over 1000 delegates.

TransferTo, a B2B mobile payment network has appointed Lee Kheng Nam to its Board of Directors, to enhance the company’s online security expertise. Lee, a Venture Partner at GGV Capital, has many years of online security experience, with particular expertise in the mobile sector.

Lee has sat on a number of boards for companies such as InsideSecure and Gemplus (now Gemalto), and currently serves as Deputy Chairman of Vertex Venture Holdings, subsidiary of Temasek Holdings.  He is also a Venture Partner of GGV Capital.

PayU, the leading payment service provider within fast-growing countries, analyses the transaction trends and potential of the 16 growth markets in which it physically operates in order to further shape the company’s business strategy under new CEO, Laurent Le Moal.

‘’Ecommerce growth within emerging countries is two times bigger than in most established regions’’, states Laurent Le Moal, CEO of PayU. ‘’These evolving markets make way for many business opportunities, provided that merchants adapt their offering to local habits and requirements.’’

SWIFT announces today that 21 banks have started the pilot for its global payments innovation initiative, intended to improve the customer experience in correspondent banking by increasing the speed, transparency and predictability of cross-border payments.

GoSwiff releases a new line of business to support mobile network operators (MNOs) in omni-channel payments. Alternative payment methods offer a great opportunity for MNOs to differentiate their proposition to the market and to develop additional services, leveraging the existing merchant accounts and getting new ones on board.

GFT, the leading provider of business, design and technology consulting to the financial services community, has appointed Andrew Scotland as head of the newly created Agile & Continuous Delivery Practice.

Neyber, a provider of financial employee benefits, today announces the appointment of Heidi Allan to the newly created role of head of insights and engagement

Imagine a world where digital giants have unconstrained access to hundreds of millions of individual bank accounts. Imagine they unleash their brand, technology, data and reach to bring new value propositions to these individuals. Imagine that they are followed by innovative and agile new entrants.

TOC BIOMETRICS unveils its new APPROVE App at the Money 20/20 global event. The consent administrator system allows users to confirm or authorize with their fingerprint and smartphone to perform tasks such as online banking login, money transfers, payments, purchases, permits, electronic signatures, authentication at an ATM and so on. Through a push message, the person can answer "I am/ I do" while placing their finger on the sensor of the smartphone.