Grasshopper, Singapore’s leading proprietary trading firm and liquidity provider, has expanded its deployment of the Solace PubSub+ advanced event broker to offer enhanced capabilities that use machine learning for predictive trading. 

Target, Taco Bell, Hy-Vee supermarkets in the Midwest, Speedway convenience stores and Jack in the Box are the latest merchants to support Apple Pay, the most popular mobile contactless payment system in the world that lets customers easily and securely pay in stores using their iPhone and Apple Watch. 

Today, Mastercard announced its contactless cards soon will be accepted at Target stores, giving shoppers the ability to simply tap to pay. Cardholders using a contactless Mastercard—ones with a contactless symbol on them—will tap their card on the reader screen to pay and head on their way.

“We’re excited that our cardholders can soon use this technology for fuss-free transactions at Target stores,” said Linda Kirkpatrick, executive vice president, U.S. Merchants and Acceptance for Mastercard. “Whether it be navigating the subway or conquering errands, contactless acceptance will take the consumer experience to the next level one tap at a time.”

Peace of mind + Piece of time

Contactless technology was developed by Mastercard with the mindset of never sacrificing security for convenience. The cards and devices contain an embedded chip and a radio frequency (RFID) antenna that provide a wireless link with the contactless reader. When the card or device is tapped against the reader, information is transmitted in a highly secure manner within a fraction of a second.

Contactless momentum is growing in the U.S., where 95% of all new checkout terminals are contactless-ready, delivering the best combination of convenience and security at the point-of-sale. Large and small banks have committed to issuing millions of cards with the capability to tap to pay in 2019.

New research amongst institutional investors from the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC) - the leading association for the blockchain ecosystem - reveals 63% believe senior executives at large established businesses have a poor understanding of blockchain.  Only 7% described their understanding as ‘good’, with the remainder describing it as ‘average’.

According to the research, 76% of professional investors interviewed don’t feel senior executives at large established businesses are particularly committed to blockchain, but overall they expect global spend on blockchain technology to increase by 108% this year. Over one in 20 (6%) anticipate spend in this area will increase by more than 200% during this time period.

When it comes to which sectors professional investors believe blockchain will have the biggest impact on over the next five years, 69% cited financial services and banking, followed by 45% who said digital identity, and 34% who said healthcare.

Building on this, when asked which sectors will see the biggest increase in the usage of blockchain over the next two years as opposed to just exploring and researching its potential, 33% of institutional investors expect to see a ‘dramatic’ increase in the use of this technology over this time period within financial services and banking, with a further 41% anticipating a slight increase.

The corresponding figures for digital identity - the sector investors expect to see the second largest impact - are 20% and 38%, and for healthcare, which is expected to see the third biggest impact, they are 16% and 37%.

How investors see the level of application of blockchain technology within organisations in the following sectors changing over the next two years

Sandra Ro, CEO of the GBBC, said: “Our research suggests there is still a huge task ahead for the blockchain industry to educate senior executives at large corporations about the benefits of this new technology.  Despite this, investors still expect companies to invest huge amounts of money into how they can capitalise on blockchain, but they anticipate it will vary greatly between different sectors.  Indeed, our research reveals that 39% of professional investors believe blockchain will do to banking what the internet did to media.”

Tungsten Network, the global business transaction network, has released a new version of its Workflow product.

Tungsten Network Workflow automates accounts payable processes, enabling incoming invoices to be automatically routed, coded, matched, approved and posted into their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system via an integrated connection. It offers users a single reference point from which they are able to track invoices, monitor cash flow and respond to vendor inquiries relating to the status of their invoices.

The latest version introduces a range of new features, like a new reporting tool replete with options to make it even easier to create robust, comprehensive reports. The new application performs faster and has an entirely new look and feel, allowing for a more intuitive user experience. It is also available on mobile devices, so users can manage their invoices more dynamically.

Tungsten Network Workflow 5.0 is currently available to existing Tungsten Network customers and is currently in its pilot phase with a number of these, including Honda Logistics. It will be available to new customers from February 2019.

Rick Hurwitz, Tungsten Network’s Chief Executive, said: “As we embark on a new year it is exciting to bring a brand-new version of Workflow to the market. Developed in close consultation with our customers, they believe that this latest iteration represents an improved user experience and feature set. Initial reception from pilot users suggests that the new product will be a great success.”

Brad Gerritsen, Honda Logistics’ Accounts Payable Supervisor, said: “The Tungsten Network Workflow platform gives us a clear picture of our open liabilities so we can make better payment decisions. We now have increased flexibility in handling our vendor payments. Additionally, with full visibility into our outstanding liabilities and greater efficiency in processing and paying our AP invoices, we can refocus our resources on working with our vendors on dynamic discounts and more favourable payment terms. We’re excited to experience what the new Workflow version 5.0 has to offer to make our AP Automation even more efficient and further enable improvements to our cash flow management.”

Nets, a market leader in the European payments industry, and Bankart, a leading Slovenian company in the field of processing of modern payment instruments, are ready to go live with an instant payment solution in Slovenia after final approval from the Slovenian Central Bank. In February, Bankart will go live with Nets´ RealTime24/7, enabling transactions between Slovenian banks to be cleared in less than a second.

Paul Francis Walvik-Joynt, Senior Vice President, Payments International, Nets, says: “Nets is proud that our client Bankart has announced that it has been approved by the Slovenian Central Bank to go live with a new payment system based on our RealTime24/7 Instant Payment platform.”

As well as delivering the Instant Payment module, which means that payments between any two bank accounts in Slovenia can be cleared in less than a second, Bankart will also be processing regular credit transfers exchanged in files such as bill payments, salary pay-outs and pensions in its new payment platform. 

New services
The implementation of the RealTime24/7 clearing system from Nets has enabled Bankart to pave the way for an entirely new payments infrastructure, where a variety of payments services can be integrated into mobile solutions, request for payments and more.

Aleksander Kurtevski, Managing Director, Bankart, says: “We will deliver a future proof solution developed for a whole new ecosystem that enables innovative new services. This will ensure that the Slovenian community will have access to services with a great user experience and that payments remain cost effective. 

“Instant payments are an evolution and the future of payments, and Bankart is proud to deliver this to the Slovenian market in cooperation with Nets,” Kurtevski continues.

Exciting developments in the European market
Nets has won instant payment tenders in several European countries, with Italy and Denmark already live and Hungary and Slovenia to launch in 2019. The implementation in Slovenia puts Nets among the top providers of European instant payment platforms.

Nets sees great potential in the RealTime24/7 platform and is currently engaging with clients globally who have discovered the business potential of instant payments ecosystems and the merits of the platform in terms of speed, fast delivery and low TCO.

"The experiences from our current deployments have given us an excellent product in RealTime24/7, with an open architecture permitting easy customer delivery of services in a trusted environment to benefit users,” adds Walvik-Joynt. “The final preparations and impending go-live in Slovenia shows that implementation of instant payment solutions will continue to spread across the Nordics, Europe and the world.”

Financial scouts note that European stock markets now face many incoming cues that are really mixed. The biggest current news on both sides of the spectrum is the Brexit uncertainty and the meaningful progress towards resolving the U.S.-China trade war.
So while the Brexit news make investors feel downbeat with Britain’s withdrawal date very close now and no deal approved yet, the U.S. and China seem to be mending their relationship after the spat. European investors are inspired by the news that the extra-high Chinese imports tariffs might be “reduced and removed”, which is a positive cue for European traders who had previously been worried that the U.S. might introduce new increased on car imports from Europe.
Also, traders in Europe are keeping track of the Davos World Economic Forum news, with some important announcements likely to be made there even though some of the key political figures and leaders like U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron are not going to Davos this year.
According to financial scouts, another thing that drives Europe’s markets is oil prices that demonstrate ambiguous dynamics. The medium-term positive driver here was the OPEC+ decision to cut the production that was passed in December 2018. So the decreased oil production eased investors’ concerns over possible oil oversupply.

XPS Pensions Group, the largest purely pension consulting and administration firm in the UK, has signed an agreement with financial technology business RiskFirst to continue to deliver fast, high-quality and transparent reporting and modelling to clients through PFaroe’s comprehensive suite of analytics.

XPS was formed following the merger of Xafinity and Punter Southall – both of which have been longstanding users of PFaroe. XPS will use PFaroe alongside its other systems to provide value-added service, and valuation and analytics capabilities that can help to drive optimised decision making and truly successful outcomes for clients.

Paul Cuff, CEO of XPS, comments: “We are firm believers in harnessing cutting-edge technology to deliver effective, dynamic solutions to our clients. PFaroe is a key component of our technology offerings, providing detailed, accurate reporting and valuations, upon which clients can confidently base their decisions.”

Matthew Seymour, CEO of RiskFirst, says: “We very much value our longstanding relationship with XPS and are pleased they have decided to extend this relationship. PFaroe offers flexible, efficient, effective risk management capabilities which complement XPS’s suite of tools to support the needs of their clients.”

Israeli startup Hailo, developers of a proprietary processing architecture for deep learning on edge devices, has expanded its Series A funding round to $21 million. 

Chinese venture capital firm, Glory Ventures, led the investment-round expansion and was joined by existing and other new investors. The investment will enable the company to expand its target markets into China and Hong Kong, complementing its existing markets in Europe, North America, Japan and Korea. 

Hailo is also opening registration for the Hailo-8 Fast Track program to select customers and is offering these customers the opportunity to evaluate the initial samples of its high-performance, low-power and small-size Hailo-8™ deep learning processor.  

Program participants from various sectors will also be able to develop and prototype their own deep learning products based on the Hailo-8 processor.

Beyond the value it delivers to its strategic focus, the automotive market, Hailo's breakthrough processor technology serves deep learning applications in a wide range of other markets including surveillance, smart home, IoT and industrial, as well as robotics,  AR/VR platforms and wearables.

"The expansion of our Series A round and the addition of Glory Ventures to our investor roll boosts our ability to bring out innovative, powerful and resilient deep learning processors for edge devices, and helps us target the strategic markets of China and Hong Kong," said Orr Danon, Hailo CEO and co-founder. “The upcoming samples of our Hailo-8 processor will help players in multiple markets overcome the daunting barriers of sufficiently low power consumption, size and cost which currently prevent them from deploying intense deep learning capabilities in their edge products."

"We have been following the AI compute global landscape closely and found Hailo's technology to stand out" said Eric Yang, founding partner at Glory Ventures. "We are impressed with the Hailo team and their ability to execute. We look forward to continuing our relationship with them as AI becomes a 'must-have' technology in every camera-enabled device.”