In the US, total funding fell from $27 billion to just $12.8 billion, while the total number of deals was down from 615 to 489, a drop blamed by the report on political and regulatory uncertainty, a decline in mega-deals and investor caution.

Funding for FinTech companies around the world declined significantly in 2016. American and European firms experience a particularly sharp drop in investment, according to a report from KPMG and CB Insights, which nevertheless predicts an increase in 2017. Total FinTech funding declined by almost 50%, falling to $25 billion in 2016 from $47 billion in 2015.

For Europe, the picture was even bleaker, with total FinTech investment dropping 80% from $10.9 billion in 2015 to $2.2 billion last year. Europe's FinTech leader, the UK saw deal value down from $4.6 billion to $654 million, although transaction volume remained steady.

KPMG says that London continues to be seen as a true global financial center with a vibrant tech startup sector and that, while Brexit-related uncertainties are a concern, 2016 is likely to be just a time when investors "paused for breath".

In fact, KPMG is bullish about FinTech's prospects on both sides of the Atlantic, highlighting the "game changer" that is PSD2 in Europe and the rise of insurtech and new technologies such as blockchain, AI and the Internet of Things.

Meanwhile, Asia, led by China, was one part of the world that held steady last year, with deal funding reaching a new record high of $8.6 billion invested compared to $8.4 billion in 2015. Just three mega-rounds accounted for over half of the total.

According to the KPMG, innovative startups network co-leader Brian Hughes, 2017 is likely to be a pivotal year for FinTech in the US and around the world. The reason is valuations have corrected, the market has set up a perfect storm for IPOs and M&A to happen in 2017. An increasing number of exits will likely stimulate demand for new investments thanks to the dry powder already in the market.

PGi, the world's largest provider of collaboration solutions announced the launch of its mobile collaboration exchange. Particularly, it is the first-of-its-kind, leveraging its global conferencing and collaboration network to enable mobile operators to deliver a High Definition (HD) audio and video conferencing experience to their customers. This is possible through using existing investments in their LTE and VoLTE network infrastructure. 

Unlike an IPX, which is an efficient hub network that interconnects mobile operators to one another, PGi's mobile collaboration exchange is also a global hub, but for mobile HD communication. The exchange enables mobile operators globally, either directly or through an IPX, to interconnect customers in conference calls and collaborations, across operator networks, while preserving HD voice quality with QoS connections.  

PGi is excited to take our HD collaboration experience and extend our mobile collaboration exchange to network operators and their customers around the world.

PGi has seen mobile participation in its hosted conferences go from less than five percent in 2005 to more than 26 percent in 2016. This uptick reflects the convenience and growing preference for business collaborators to use their mobile phones. And, with the increased quality of HD, PGi projects mobile participation to exceed 66 percent by 2020.

High definition audio provides a dramatic increase in clarity and effectiveness in conference calls due to both a wider frequency range as well as a higher signal to noise ratio. This leads to decreased background noise, less clipping of double talkers, more intelligibility of others with different accents or soft-spoken voices and less fatigue from straining to hear on lower quality calls.

Built to maximize a mobile operator's investment in VoLTE, PGi's platform for its mobile collaboration exchange can connect any device on any VoLTE or SIP network into an HD audio bridge. Currently mobile HD audio is only experienced on a point-to-point call, but now, by interconnecting to PGi's platform for its mobile collaboration exchange, HD audio conferencing can be experienced by any VoLTE customer on any network, in any country.

Software and technology industry veteran Mike Barry joins Optanix to run the next phase of company growth.

Optanix, the leader in ensuring predictable IT for the world's most technology-driven companies, today announced that Mike Barry has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer.

Hundreds of customers, including the world's top financial institutions, media and technology companies, and agencies of the federal government, rely on Optanix's proven platform and IT Management-as-a-Service (ITMaaS). The battle-tested Optanix Platform – powered by Advanced Logic Automation – and suite of accompanying SaaS and ITMaaS services.  

Barry coming onboard coincides with the company's acceleration of software development for the proven Optanix Platform. The extension of applications and systems that it manages, and the expansion of channels to bring the platform to new markets. The Optanix Platform maximizes business service availability through comprehensive monitoring and an advanced, highly automated and proactive approach to identifying and resolving root cause incidents across customer's networks. Over the past year, as part of the team at Francisco Partners, Mike has been invaluable in helping to shape the future direction of Optanix. Mike's executive leadership experience, coupled with his extensive technology and product expertise, will be instrumental in the realization of company’s strategy for the Optanix Platform and the acceleration of the growth.

Barry brings more than 30 years of executive and technology leadership experience to Optanix. Prior to joining Optanix, Barry was an Operating Partner at Francisco Partners, a leading technology-focused private equity firm. Before that, he served as Executive Vice President of R&D and Product Management at Aderant, a global provider of comprehensive business management software for legal and other professional services firms. Barry was instrumental in leading Aderant over nine years and through three successful ownership transactions, including its sale to Roper Technologies. Prior to Aderant, Barry held leadership positions at EFI, TR Systems and Datapoint Corporation.

The Optanix team is delighted to welcome Mike Barry on board as CEO of Optanix and looks forward to continuing to build on the company's strong foundation under his leadership.

Goodix, the global leader in human interface and biometric technologies, reported today that it would unveil another world’s first technology. It is patented with independent intellectual properties at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017 in Barcelona, Spain.

Goodix is a premier developer and provider of fingerprint and touchscreen solutions for mobile phones, tablets, and wearables. The company currently holds a diversified portfolio of fingerprint authentication solutions that provides excellent flexibility to suit the varying preferences from consumers and partners such as Live Finger Detection, Invisible Fingerprint Sensor (IFS), Glass-covered and Coating button sensors. In addition, Goodix has been actively involved in assisting Alipay and China UnionPay with reviewing industry standards for fingerprint authentication. As an increasing number of top-tier handset manufacturers adopting fingerprints solutions from the company, Goodix will continue expanding its partner network to lead innovation in the biometrics authentication market.

The new innovations will once again demonstrate Goodix’s prime ability to accurately forecast market trends and address people’s needs through technology. Its fingerprint authentication solutions already protect hundreds of millions of mobile phones, tablets, and smart wearables.

Goodix will showcase different smart phones equipped with the CES award-winning technologies including Live Finger Detection and IFS. This time, Goodix’s announcement at MWC is followed by many successful new partnerships and innovations. For 15 years, Goodix has led its industry through an unrivalled commitment to investing in research and development, service support and talent. As the world leader in human interface and biometric technologies, the new Goodix innovations will go to market after their debut at MWC, enriching the lives of people with enhanced security and more convenience around the world.

SOASTA, the leader in performance analytics, today reported that MoneySuperMarket Group (MSMG), the UK’s largest price comparison site, has applied CloudTest and mPulse solutions across its online service brands.

The decision is a strategic move to consolidate and enhance their load and performance programme. It includes iconic brands such as TravelSupermarket.com and MoneySavingExpert.com. The step to standardize on the SOASTA platform reflects the growing importance of Digital Performance Management (DPM). As well as, it was enabled and driven by the work, analysis, and advice undertaken by Ten10, an independent testing consultancy.

In light of a growing and continuous stream of traffic to the various MSMG sites, it is clear that a common load and performance management platform would deliver greater efficiencies and economies of scale. It will also provide deeper insights into the user journey and customer experience. The challenge lays in finding a platform that could be scaled easily, be rapidly deployed, and also deliver detailed analytics and insights to support the business objectives. Given the highly competitive nature of the sector, MSMG recognized that the performance of their own comparison sites was a key differentiator in sustaining its high standard of service and instrumental in driving future growth.

During the evaluation period, SOASTA and Ten10 provided a highly flexible and timely service that enabled MSMG to see the true business value that SOASTA’s platform delivers. With a wide and varied set of customers, deploying CloudTest and mPulse has enabled MSMG to build performance tests that accurately measure and monitor thousands of concurrent users across all their sites.

MSMG’s technology vision is built around optimizing across all platforms, all users, and all devices. We were able to draw on our relationship with SOASTA to negotiate a package that delivered a robust and scalable DPM platform within budget and timeframes. 

According to ACI Worldwide, majority of UK consumers have doubts about the ability of businesses and financial institutions to manage confidential data safely. For instance, 19 percent of respondents say they do not trust firms to protect their data and 33 percent responded they are unsure. Confidence levels were similar across the globe and only three countries had more than 50 percent of respondents indicated that they trust institutions to protect their financial and payments data.

The Global Consumer Survey: Consumer Trust and Security Perceptions held survey among more than 6,000 consumers. The respondents represented about 20 countries and were surveyed on their perceptions and opinions toward fraud in shopping, data protection, and the ways they want to engage with firms to minimise fraud.

More than a third of UK respondents (35%) consequently see theft by computer hackers as the biggest fraud risk. While using cards for purchases via telephone, using a phone or tablet to shop or pay bills and shopping online are all perceived as less risky. After experiencing fraud or data breach, 56 percent of UK consumers said they would stop shopping with a given merchant.

Other key findings of the report:

-Mobile Wallet Adoption: Mobile wallet and payments adoption is strongest in regions where other electronic payments options—particularly card payments infrastructure—is less mature, for example India (56%), Thailand (51%) and Mexico (38%) compared to ‘mature card markets’ in Europe like the UK (14%), France (15%) and Netherlands (20%).

-Mobile Wallet Security: Consumers show a surprisingly high level of confidence when it comes to mobile wallet security. For example, 93 percent of UK respondents say they believe mobile wallet technology is secure or somewhat secure, one of the highest rates globally.

-Fraud Education: Consumer education on fraud awareness varies significantly across and within regions. In the UK, only 39 percent of consumers say they have received anti-fraud information from their bank. Across Europe, the picture is similar with at least one-third of consumers saying they don’t recall receiving any anti-fraud information.

-Fraud Prevention: Consumers are generally willing to interact with organisations in order to mitigate fraud. The majority of UK consumers (55 percent) prefer to be contacted by a bank via mobile phone if there is unusual activity on a bank account or card.

Overall, the research shows that consumers want to proactively manage fraud, particularly by leveraging mobile technology – whether it’s text or talk. This willingness opens opportunities for financial institutions and merchants to optimise the ways in which they reach out and communicate with consumers, ultimately improving customer experience while reducing operational costs and fraud losses.

It was an antipodean adventure for a Lincolnshire IT specialist recently as the team at Datcom completed work in Australia.

The East Midlands-based company sent some of its team over to work in Melbourne and Sydney on a project for a major Aussie supermarket.  

Datcom IT Professional Kye Colquhoun, who flew to the country twice for mission critical server installation with Managing Director Andrew Townsend, says that they had a client who had a last-minute requirement to source some new servers and get them running in a busy distribution warehouse on the outskirts of Sydney. At Datcom, everyone is very familiar with server technology so we ordered the equipment and had it delivered before we arrived to assemble and set it up.

In a far cry from his usual work environment in Lincolnshire, Kye stayed for two weeks in Sydney, putting in long hours to get the distribution system up to scratch. Having overcome a challenging installation, Kye was then asked to fly back to the country to install a similar setup in Melbourne.

This was a fantastic trip and although the build was a challenge, it was great to experience another country. The jet lag hit us pretty hard, but it felt like a real success once we turned on the system and there were no problems.

There was also time for Kye and Andrew to enjoy some of the sights. Kye took in trips to Sydney Harbour and enjoyed exotic seafood as well as paying the zoo a visit where he encountered huge spiders, venomous snakes and kangaroos!

Today’s e-commerce professionals, including small to large UK retailers, are concerned that they do not have adequate technology or processes in place to conduct effective age verification and identity checks online, according to new research released today by LexisNexis® Risk Solutions.

The research, which surveyed 200 senior e-commerce professionals responsible for the e-retail activity, found that 78% of e-commerce businesses are concerned about selling age-restricted goods or services to minors online due to the age verification methods they currently have in place. These products include cigarettes, alcohol, knives and fireworks, with the results suggesting opportunities for retailers to strengthen existing protection policies.

More than half (61%) of respondents said that they use self-certification (tick box/date of birth entry) to check their customers’ age online.  This figure was higher among the respondents from larger* e-commerce businesses, 79% said that they still use this method, which is susceptible to dishonest input. Despite the risks with self-certify age verification methods, only 30% of e-commerce businesses use Know Your Customer (KYC) checks via specialist credit check or identity check software.

Worryingly, 83% of e-commerce businesses said that they feel that they need to conduct more comprehensive identity verification to mitigate identity fraud, which is a growing threat for consumers online. Recent statistics from the not-for-profit organisation for financial crime, Cifas, found that victims of identity fraud rose by 57% last year, with 86% of the identity fraud cases committed online.

Steve Arnison, Director, LexisNexis® Risk Solutions, said:

“Retailers have contended with the challenges associated with selling age-restricted goods online for some time. Striking a balance between strong age verification checks that ensure they meet their legal obligations and protect their customers, whilst at the same time limiting friction to the shopping experience, is a priority for them.

“Our survey has highlighted opportunities for e-commerce businesses to strengthen procedures for determining the age of their customers. Many are still using an out-dated self-certification tick box approach, which on the one hand is quick and simple for the consumer, but is wide-open to misuse resulting in dangerous products being delivered to underage consumers.

“There is a widespread misconception that integrating robust identity verification technology will complicate the checkout process and make it more time-consuming for the consumer, however this is not the case. Today’s age verification software seamlessly integrates into a retailer’s e-commerce system so that checks are automated in real-time, with no need for the customer to input extensive personal information. 

“As well as adding the protection for young people that society and government increasingly demand, improved identity verification brings businesses other benefits, not least of which is a better defence against fraud. Card-not-present fraud is a growing issue, so much so that it cost businesses £398.2m in 2015. With the right technology in place, online retailers will be able to gain a clearer view of who they are conducting business with, allowing them to proactively reduce the risk of identity fraud and underage sales.”

Prepaid Financial Services Limited (PFS), a recognized e-money issuer, and alternative-banking provider today reported about acquisition of Spectre Technologies Limited (STL). This is a Malta-based software development enterprise with a long history of providing bespoke software to banking and FinTech industries.

Previously PFS has worked closely with the Spectre Technologies team for several years. It has always been impressed by how quickly they could build bespoke payment infrastructure and programmes for clients.

This acquisition will further solidify PFS position, as one of the leading payments providers in Europe. The technology platform and ability to innovate enables us to cater to the needs of clients in today’s fast changing payment and software environment.

As a market leader of middleware solutions for the prepaid industry, Spectre Technologies has tightly cooperated with PFS to develop e-wallets, FX systems, mobile apps, and loading networks. This acquisition accelerates PFS’s ability to apply new financial products and enhances the existing services for the benefit of its customers.

CEO of Spectre IT promises providing additional support in building innovative solutions. As well as acting in an advisor to organizations when launching new products and services to the market.

This acquisition demonstrates PFS’s commitment to innovation, which focuses on providing alternative banking solutions to clients and their end users. The partnership with STL will allow us to accelerate the delivery of products and programmes to meet their needs in even shorter timeframes.

The partnership will also enable PFS to provide white-label mobile payments solutions, such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Android Pay. As well as, our new and existing clients and wallet partners, to give them access to the company’s IBAN and SEPA payments solution throughout Europe. Thus enhancing their value proposition. This cross-border mobile payment development will be a major benefit for clients, regardless of whether they are a bank, a mobile operator, or a FinTech startup.