Callidus Software Inc., a global leader in cloud-based sales, marketing, learning and customer experience solutions, announced today that Zoopla, the UK's most comprehensive property website, has selected the Litmos Mobile Learning Platform.

Litmos is a learning management platform that enables enterprises to rapidly deploy education programs to customers, partners and employees. Designed with mobility in mind, the platform allows content to be consumed on any device and within the applications the users already access for a true embedded learning experience.

Thomson Reuters is the first major industry player to make a smart oracle available in the blockchain ecosystem for lean experimentation purposes. 

TerraPay, the world’s first mobile payments switch, has partnered with YES BANK, India’s fourth largest private sector bank, to enable real-time international money transfers to bank accounts in India. Powered by TerraPay’s global clearing and settlement service, the partnership will make it faster and convenient for consumers to send money to any bank account.

TerraPay has partnered with YES BANK in a Rupee Drawing Arrangement which enables TerraPay’s network partners to make instant cross-border money transfer to bank accounts in India. This means that Indian migrants worldwide can walk into TerraPay’s partner outlet anytime and send money to their family and friends back home, instantly in their bank account. For bank accounts other than YES BANK accounts, YES BANK will disburse funds using the immediate payment service, popularly known as IMPS. The service is available 24X7.

Ambar Sur, Founder & CEO of TerraPay commented, “India is the world’s largest recipient of remittances. According to World bank reports, Indian migrants sent USD 62.7 billion in FY 2016-17, which is in fact greater than FDI inflows to India. These remittance inflows from Indian diaspora community have contributed immensely to the macro and micro-economic development of the country. Our partnership with Yes Bank would help us do our bit for the migrants by providing a real-time, 24X7 and seamless money transfer service experience.”

Arun Agrawal, Group President & Global Head, International Banking, YES BANK commented, “Since inception, YES BANK has leveraged innovation and technology to revolutionise the Banking experience in India. We are glad to partner TerraPay to enable a convenient, cashless remittance option for migrants looking to transfer money to India. This 24x7 service is backed by YES BANK’s state-of-the-art API Banking platform and superior security protocols, and will help boost granular FX inflows into India.” 

The SmartStream Reference Data Utility (RDU), founded by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and SmartStream, today announced a new Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II) reference data service, enabling financial organisations to more easily meet regulatory requirements, which go live in January 2018. The SmartStream RDU MiFID II service is now in testing with customers.

The RDU provides a fully integrated reference data set to support pre-trade price transparency, post-trade reporting and transaction reporting, sourcing data from ESMA, ANNA, GLEIF, the National Competent Authorities and trading venues, as well as enrichment feeds, where applicable. The result is a simple to use, enriched source that allows customers to focus on ensuring that their trading processes comply with the new regulations. In addition to an aggregated data feed, the service includes an API that allows customers to integrate with the ANNA Derivatives Service Bureau for ISIN look-up and creation, and determine if an OTC instrument has an equivalent that is Traded on a Trading Venue (ToTV).

Peter Moss, CEO, The SmartStream Reference Data Utility, states: “In workshops with over 40 Systematic Internalisers and other industry participants, we’ve observed a wide variance in MiFID readiness. Our goal is to shield customers from what is a very fluid MiFID environment, accelerate their implementation program and protect their critical path from gaps in availability of key data sets and regulatory interpretation. We are already in testing with clients, helping prepare them for the industry tests that will take place in the summer”.

Today Misys and D+H have joined forces to create a diversified global financial software provider, unmatched in terms of depth and breadth of solutions. Operating under the new company name Finastra (www.finastra.com), the combination will create the third largest financial services technology company in the world. The company has approximately 10,000 employees and over 9,000 customers across 130 countries, including 48 of the top 50 banks globally. This follows the acquisition of D+H by Vista Equity Partners, which already owns Misys, creating a merger of two highly complementary financial technology providers.

Finastra will be led by Nadeem Syed in the role of Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Syed was previously CEO of Misys and has over 27 years of experience leading global technology companies through transformation and growth. The company has U.S. $2.1 billion* in revenues and has offices in 42 countries around the world. It will be headquartered in London, UK, maintaining North American headquarters in Toronto, Canada.

Finastra offers the broadest set of retail banking, transaction banking, lending, and treasury and capital markets software capabilities available in the world. The company’s open architecture and approach enable financial institutions to harness the power of software ecosystems and will be delivered on premises, hosted or via the cloud. With the increased scale and geographic reach, Finastra will be able to serve customers better, regardless of their size or geographic location – from global banks, to community banks, credit unions, and corporations. Using the company’s secure and reliable solutions, customers will be empowered to accelerate growth, optimize cost, mitigate risk and continually evolve to deliver a superior customer experience, both now and in the future.

Having long pursued a progressive vision of innovation within both businesses, Finastra will strive to further unlock the potential of people and businesses by executing the product strategy of ‘Protect, Extend and Innovate’. This includes protecting our customers’ investments in all of our solutions; extending the value of our solutions by integrating new products and services; and innovating to create the best-in-class solutions. Finastra will work in partnership to help customers transform their business, and become more agile, innovative, and resilient to better meet their evolving needs.

“Serving all of our customers and partners remains our top priority. By coming together as Finastra we are committed to enhancing our ability to deliver market-leading products and services, and to being an even more strategic partner to our customers. We will build momentum, delivering innovative and transformational products and exceptional service. Our mission is to help our customers, whatever their size, wherever they are located,” said Mr. Syed.

"We firmly believe that Finastra is greater than the sum of its parts. The combination of scale, efficiency, and market leading service and technology will create a powerhouse in the Fintech sector and uniquely position the company to meet the demands of its global customers and their clients," said Robert Smith, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners.

Finastra will be privately held.

*Revenues are on a trailing 12 months pro forma basis.

Bittium has received a purchase order for supplying the Finnish Air Force with Bittium Tactical Wireless IP Network™ (TAC WIN) system. The order is part of the modernization of the radio network performance of the Air Force’s bases with a Software-Defined Radio based IP radio system. With the order the use of the Bittium TAC WIN system within the Finnish Defence Forces’ branches expands to the Air Force. Bittium TAC WIN system will be delivered to the Finnish Air Force during the year 2017.

“The TAC WIN system will significantly improve the survivability, flexibility and ease of use of the Finnish Air Force’s wireless data transfer infrastructure. At the same time it will enhance the cooperation capabilities between the Finnish Air Force and the other military branches, as well as the development of the command and control, shared situational awareness and data transfer architecture”, says Assistant Chief of Staff C4IS, Lieutenant Colonel Kari Partinen, Finnish Air Force.

The value of the received purchase order is EUR 0.9 million (excl. VAT). The order has no effect on Bittium's financial outlook for the year 2017, published on February 20, 2017 in Bittium's Financial Statement Bulletin 2016.

SWIFT today announces the launch of an instant payments messaging solution for the European market. It will allow instant payments to be made over the SWIFT network, and provide customers with a single gateway to connect seamlessly to multiple instant payments systems. The instant payments solution will be available by November 2018. Once delivered for Europe, the same solution could support instant payments initiatives elsewhere.

This solution is the latest development in SWIFT's global instant payments strategy, and builds on SWIFT’s earlier success in Australia. In 2015, SWIFT was awarded the contract to deliver the messaging infrastructure to underpin Australia’s new payments platform, AU NPP, which is expected to go live later this year.

Christian Sarafidis, Chief Marketing Officer, SWIFT, commented: “Our instant payments strategy has delivered early successes in Australia and I am confident it will bring significant benefit to our customers globally. Initially, the instant payments gateway will provide access to multiple instant payments operators across Europe, and then the plan is to further expand into other markets.”

The instant payments gateway can be used stand-alone, but it can also be integrated with SWIFT’s Alliance Messaging Hub (AMH), which enables the processing of financial message flows and integration with back office systems. It will be fully compliant with industry standards and specifications. 

“Our instant payments gateway is designed to meet the challenges our customers face and forms the cornerstone of our future footprint, in particular enabling access to the forthcoming combined T2/TIPS/T2S platform ,” concludes Sarafidis.

The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) has announced new regulations to create a regulatory sandbox that will allow startups and fintech firms to test and experiment their banking ideas and solutions. The creation of the regulatory sandbox provides an opportunity for fintech businesses around the world to expand and thrive in the Gulf and strengthens Bahrain’s position as a fintech and financial services hub in the GCC.

The framework provides a virtual space for companies to test their technology-based innovative solutions, and is open to existing CBB licensees and other local and foreign firms. The testing duration is nine months, with a maximum extension of three months.

In order to be eligible, solutions need to demonstrate innovation, customer benefit, technical testing, and an intention to be deployed in Bahrain after the sandbox period ends.

The CBB recently issued the Regulatory Sandbox Framework directive, which includes the eligibility criteria, filing requirements and timeline for the process. This may be found on Bahrain Startup website (www.startup.bh) and CBB’s website on the following link: http://www.cbb.gov.bh/page-p-regulatory_sandbox_en.htm.

This is in line with the Kingdom’s efforts to further develop the ecosystem in place to encourage growth in the FinTech industry. Most recently, the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) announced a partnership with FinTech incubator and ecosystem builder Singapore Fintech Consortium and asset management and advisory firm Trucial Investment Partners to develop a FinTech (financial technology) ecosystem and regulatory framework for the Kingdom. The agreement includes support in developing the related commercial and legal infrastructure required to initiate, nurture and sustain Bahrain’s FinTech ecosystem. It will pave the way for increased interaction between fintech firms in the Middle East via Bahrain and those in ASEAN via Singapore and will facilitate the entry of Singaporean FinTech companies into the Kingdom.

H.E. Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj, Governor of the CBB, said: “These new initiatives are a continuation of the CBB’s efforts to provide the right mix of policies and products to develop and enhance the quality and competitiveness of services in the financial sector. We are living in an era of unprecedented changes mainly brought about by technological advancement, where we are witnessing how technology is defining financial services and CBB remains at the forefront of these developments to enable the industry to advance similarly.”

H.E. Khalid Al Rumaihi, Chief Executive of the EDB, said: “The launch of the regulatory sandbox is an initiative that follows on the directives of HRH the Crown Prince to prioritise innovation that supports sustainable high value job creation in the Kingdom. In order to grow the fintech industry, we know we need to create an ecosystem in which entrepreneurs can innovate and test their ideas – and the introduction of Sandbox regulations is one of the key steps towards ensuring that environment. Bahrain has always been an attractive proposition for fintech - particularly due to our unique offering in areas such as Islamic finance and payments, and we are looking forward to welcoming more local, regional, and international fintech firms.”

“The regulatory sandbox will enable industry players to apply innovative Fintech products while maintaining the overall safety and soundness of the financial system; We are pleased with the introduction of this regulation, which sets a very forward-looking policy that adapts with the times,” said Mr. Khalid Hamad, Executive Director of Banking Supervision. 

Bahrain provided greater opportunities for fintech businesses in 2014, when the CBB initiated two new license types - payment services and card processing services - marking the entry of non-banking companies into banking services. To date Bahrain has issued 14 licenses for these two activities.

Ingenico ePayments, the online and mobile commerce division of Ingenico Group, today announced that WOW air, the low-fare, long-haul airline based in Iceland, has selected Ingenico ePayments to support the next phase of its global expansion by enabling consumers anywhere to seamlessly buy online tickets and services using their preferred payment methods. In addition to global credit card transactions, WOW air is now also able to let its customers pay with locally popular payment methods such as iDEAL in the Netherlands and SOFORT in Germany. By implementing a localised payment strategy, WOW air can avoid common payment frustrations and create a frictionless checkout experience for their customers. 

Ingenico ePayments’ full-service payment platform means WOW air can manage its full range of payment products through a single connection, and because Ingenico provides consolidated reporting, advanced data analytics and online fraud management, WOW air can accelerate its growth into new markets without adding complexity to its payments processing. 

“WOW air is committed to providing the cheapest flights to and from Iceland and across the Atlantic, and doing so with a smile and providing a memorable service all the way. Our service doesn’t begin when you step on board of one of our planes, it begins online when you purchase a ticket,” said Engilbert Hafsteinsson, VP sales and marketing at WOW air. “Payment is a key part of that experience, and we wanted to guarantee a smooth checkout experience that reflects our company values. With Ingenico ePayments, we have found the right partner to help us do just that.”

More than 100 international airlines rely on Ingenico ePayments for payments processing, and the company is fully integrated with all major GDS and PSS providers.

“WOW air is shaking up the airline industry in Europe with an innovative business model and a new and energetic company culture,” said David Gebhardt, Chief Revenue Officer at Ingenico ePayments. “They understand intuitively that consumers these days expect to pay on their own terms, and a seamless payment experience is part of how they perceive great service.”