V-Key, a global leader in digital security, and Ant Financial Services Group, the leading global tech company that provides online and mobile financial solutions, have entered into a collaboration. Under the partnership, V-Key will provide a virtual software solution called V-OS for Ant Financial to help secure transactions on AliExpress, one of Alibaba Group's international retail ecommerce platforms. (Ant Financial is a related company of Alibaba Group).

Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) announced today the appointment of Patrick Welch to the role of Chief Credit Officer. Pat will be reporting to Jim Nadler, President and COO.

HomeStreet Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of HomeStreet, Inc. , yesterday completed its previously announced purchase of two retail deposit branches and related deposit accounts from Boston Private Bank & Trust Company (“Boston Private”).  The branches, located in southern California, are expected to add approximately $104 million in deposits and increase the bank’s retail deposit branch network to 13 in southern California.

International Standard Asset Management (ISAM), a leading global Alternative Investment Manager, announced today that it has received the 2016 Hedge Fund Award from AIM Summit for “Best Managed Futures Provider with assets under management (AUM) in excess of US$1 billion."

AXELOS, global custodians of ITIL, the world’s most widely adopted service management framework, and IT Revolution, visionaries of the DevOps movement and publishers of The DevOps Handbook, have come together to launch a free online training program, DevOps Awareness Training, in early 2017.  

The issue here is that manufacturers continue to make devices without paying attention to security, and consumers haven’t yet realised that basic password hygiene is incredibly important in a connected age. There should be a zero-tolerance mentality for simple security errors like these. The botnets we have seen in recent high-profile attacks were and are still publicly available, so until we take collective action on this issue attacks like this will continue to occur.

Bankwell recently appointed Penko Ivanov of Wilton as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer at Bankwell Financial Group and its subsidiary, Bankwell Bank, both headquartered in New Canaan, Connecticut.

Dion Global Solutions announced the appointment of  James Shanahan, Chief Operating Officer, and Carl Kimball, Global Head of Sales and Marketing. 

CEO Michel Borst said the appointments marked a significant milestone for the Dion Global business. “Dion has achieved excellent growth over the past 12 months, and with these appointments we are confident we accelerate that,” he said. “Carl and James bring us an invaluable skillset and I’m very positive about the contributions they will make to our business.”