Only weeks ahead of its demerger from parent company eBay, PayPal has recently announced the all-cash acquisition of cross-border P2P remittance provider Xoom for $25 per share, equivalent to $890m. This latest acquisition follows on the heels of other recent notable deals including in 2015 mobile wallet platform provider Paydiant for an estimated $280m, and new breed payments gateway provider Braintree, including its domestic P2P brand Venmo, for $800m in 2013.

ICAP plc (IAP.L), a leading markets operator and provider of post trade risk mitigation and information services, announces the appointment of Jenny Knott as CEO Post Trade Risk and Information Services.

Jenny joins ICAP from leading African financial services group Standard Bank Group where she was CEO of Standard Bank Plc and CIB International, and most recently Strategic Advisor to the Group CEOs.

Cisco announced its intent to acquire OpenDNS, a privately held security company based in San Francisco. OpenDNS provides advanced threat protection for any device, anywhere, anytime. The acquisition will boost Cisco's Security Everywhere approach by adding broad visibility and threat intelligence from the OpenDNS cloud delivered platform.

BT today announced a new drive to accelerate innovation in global financial markets by bringing fintech start-ups onto the BT Radianz Cloud, the world’s largest, secure networked financial community. The Radianz Cloud celebrates its 15th anniversary this year.

Fintech start-ups are a growing source of innovation in the financial markets industry.  But their small size creates challenges around market adoption, delivery and meeting the stringent contractual or compliance expectations of large financial institutions.

American retail banks will spend $16.6 billion on "digital transformation initiatives" this year, according to research from IDC Financial Insights.

Mariner Investment Group, the alternative investment manager, has appointed Dmitry Green as Chief Risk Officer. Mr. Green has managed investment risk at a number of blue chip alternative investment firms, and joins Mariner from Saba Capital where he was MD and CRO.

Mr. Green will be responsible for monitoring investment risk across all of Mariner's businesses. He will be a member of the firm's Investment and Risk committees, and will report directly to Mariner's operating committee.

Singapore has committed S$225 million over the next five years to a scheme designed to build a vibrant ecosystem for innovation in fintech.

Citi announced today the release of its completely redesigned Citi Mobile® App for iPhone® in the U.S. The new app for consumer banking and credit card customers enables the use of the Touch ID feature on iPhone devices, integrates with Apple Watch™ and adds new features responding to customer feedback and changing behaviors.

AIM Software, a global software provider of Enterprise Data Management (EDM) solutions for financial and securities institutions worldwide, today announced the appointment of Marco Sablone as Director of Sales for the North American Market.

Markit (Nasdaq: MRKT), a leading global diversified provider of financial information services, today announced the completion of its acquisition of Information Mosaic, a leading software provider for corporate actions and post trade securities processing.

The Information Mosaic business is being integrated into Markit’s Solutions division and will be led by Paul Taylor, managing director, reporting to Michele Trogni, managing director and cohead of Solutions.