ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW), a leading global provider of real-time electronic payment and banking solutions, today announced that Rabobank, a global multinational bank, will utilize the company’s UP Immediate Payments solution.

Based in the Netherlands, Rabobank is a leading, customer-focused cooperative bank. As the bank continues its growth trajectory among an increasingly crowded field, it realized the need to continue to offer innovative, real-time services to meet consumer and business demands. It is also recognized that real-time payments processing is the future of payments and a real-time payments hub is critical to its strategy. As such, Rabobank needed a system to ready itself for the evolution of instant and open banking and selected ACI’s UP Immediate Payments for SEPA Instant Payments.

With the onset of new instant payments schemes across Europe, Rabobank required a flexible solution to address domestic NL instant payments processing as well as pan-European instant payments. Available via a SaaS delivery model or on-premise, ACI’s UP Immediate Payments provides connectivity and processing for the local and pan-European SEPA Instant Credit Transfer schemes (SCT Inst). UP Immediate Payments is already in production at other banks as a single point of access and liquidity controls for other country immediate payments (IP) schemes. It features enhanced functionality specifically for the management and processing of real-time payments, including exceptions handling, business intelligence and monitoring dashboards.  

“Real-time is the future of payments processing and we need to offer our customers superior solutions that keep us competitive with the new entrants in financial services,” said Erik Kwakkel, executive vice president, Payment Services, Rabobank. “We selected ACI because of its proven real-time solution, which reliably and extensibly manages increased transaction volumes as adoption grows. Its UP Immediate Payments solution offers the high performance and availability capabilities we seek, while its multi-scheme support ensures we have the flexibility to adjust to market evolution and adopt new scheme capabilities in the future.”

“We’re proud to have innovative global financial institutions like Rabobank as customers, and we’re excited to be an integral part of their real-time plans,” said Craig Saks, Chief Operating Officer, ACI Worldwide. “As immediate payments continue to advance globally and the industry awaits the launches of SCT Inst and US TCH real-time payments, it is critical for banks to ready themselves, which is why they’re turning to ACI. With our UP Immediate Payments solution, banks can implement and start testing now within their environments, and connect to the central infrastructures as they become available.”

ACI has an unmatched global customer base of financial institutions and payment service providers using its UP Immediate Payments solution. In the UK, it has been used by financial institutions to access the UK Faster Payments scheme since its launch in 2008. Currently, 9 out of the 14 direct participants of the UK’s Faster Payments Scheme use ACI’s solutions, and it has recently begun offering UK aggregator services out of its Limerick data center. Additionally, ACI has customers using UP Immediate Payments to access Singapore FAST and the Australian NPP (New Payments Platform). ACI serves on the ISO 20022 Real-Time Payments Group, the EPC Instant Payments Technology Group, payments and security task forces for the U.S. Federal Reserve, and chairs the IPFA rules working group.

GFT, the leading provider of business, design and technology consulting to 8 of the top 10 global banks, today announces that it is expanding its retail banking practice in the UK, supported by the appointment of senior hire Christian Ball, who joins as Head of Retail across the GFT Atlantic Region.

Building on the company’s extensive retail experience, GFT is responding to growing demand from clients to support them as it moves to rapidly evolve its capabilities and platforms to meet the challenges of the digital economy, which is driving a revolution in the sector.

GFT already works with many of the largest financial services companies across continental Europe and the Americas, spanning G-SIBS, emerging banks, FinTech firms and market service providers. Clients include the Royal Bank of Scotland in the UK, Banco Sabadell in Spain, SIA in Italy, and innovative new entrants such as Fidor Bank in Germany and Banco Original in Brazil.

New hire Christian Ball also brings extensive experience to spearhead the GFT Retail offering. Christian joins from Meniga, one of the top performing FinTech companies in Europe. His previous roles have seen him work with many of the leading banks to shape their digitisation strategies - including positions at Cap Gemini, Fiserv and Accenture, where he led Business Development for Accenture Software globally.

Christian will be working alongside Richard Kalas, Senior Solution Architect and Henry Chadwick, Senior Consultant, who have also both recently joined GFT.

Gareth Richardson, Managing Director at GFT commented: “GFT is the perfect change partner for retail banks, as we are able to combine the agile approach to innovation of a start-up, with the weighty know-how of an established FS player. We already have extensive experience in running successful retail banking projects across Europe, working with a range of both large and challenger banks, giving us a great footing to expand our retail operations in the UK.”

Christian Ball, Head of Retail at GFT added: “The UK retail banking sector is growing at a rapid pace, particularly as a host of new, innovative players enter the market. I’m looking forward to working alongside the global management team at GFT to advance the retail offering for the UK business, as well as driving the move into the US and Canada, building on the firm’s successful track record in this sector across other international markets.”

On the 7th and 8th March 2017, ABN AMRO Clearing will be hosting the 6th Amsterdam Investor Forum (AIF) at its head office. The pre-day focus session on the 7th March will host roundtables for managers and investors and offer more intimate discussions and knowledge sharing opportunities. The conference’s main day on the 8th March will include panel sessions and key notes as well as the AIF Factor. The AIF factor is a competition where 5 shortlisted alternative funds are given the floor for a 3 minutes pitch, to present their proposition to 250+ professional investors and managers. Delegates then cast their votes, appointing the most convincing pitch as the 2017 AIF Factor winner. The competition is open to all funds regardless of size, location, investment targets or style – active or prospective. Participants are required to register a submission via the event website by 19 February 2017.

Opportunity to raise the profile

“The Amsterdam Investor Forum is a unique opportunity for institutional investors, fund managers and asset allocators to meet and debate on market developments, regulatory landscape, investment strategies and allocation ideas. This year again, the forum will regroup the most talented managers and largest investors in alternatives. Through the AIF Factor, we want to give the opportunity to fund managers to raise their profile and present their fund strategy to an audience of investors, asset allocators and peers” comments Gildas Le Treut, Global Head of Prime at ABN AMRO Clearing.

6th edition AIF

The Amsterdam Investor Forum, organised by ABN AMRO Clearing has gained wide recognition as the leading alternative investment event in the Netherlands. In its 6th edition, the AIF will again deliver a global line-up of prominent speakers and panelist that are active in the alternatives industry
including Fund management, Asset Management, Investment and Asset allocation. “The Amsterdam Investor Forum is a key meeting place for institutional investors and alternative investment managers. The focus is to provide the audience with insights into the latest market developments in investment strategy and allocations. With a range of first class speakers, representing some of the best in the business, we will look to discuss and debate the investment opportunities and challenges for 2017” said Delphine Amzallag, European Head of Relationship Management Prime at ABN AMRO Clearing.

Participation to the AIF conference is free of charge. Participants need to register through the AIF website. While registering, attendants are invited to make a donation to ‘Alternatives 4 Children’, an independent charitable foundation that supports sustainable projects and raises money for charities involved in improving the living standards of children.

More information can be found here  https://aif2017.events.abnamro.nl/en/aif-factor 

FactSet, a global provider of integrated financial information, analytical applications, and industry-leading service, today announced that it has strengthened its relationship with Axioma, a leading provider of enterprise risk management, portfolio construction and risk and regulatory reporting solutions. This expands FactSet’s strong fixed income and multi-asset class analytics, performance, and risk offerings.

“As the market continues to look at new asset classes, and solutions providers consolidate, investment professionals need more powerful multi-asset class analytics, performance, and risk tools,” said Robert Robie, Senior Vice President, Fixed Income Analytics, FactSet. “FactSet is committed to giving our clients options, and Axioma’s risk models complement our multi-asset class analytics, performance, and risk solutions.”

The strategic relationship includes making Axioma’s linear fixed income and multi-asset class model available on FactSet and expands the multi-asset class risk models already available through FactSet.

“In today’s dynamic landscape, flexibility, collaboration and integration are key principles in helping investment professionals successfully navigate risk,” said JF Chauwin, Axioma’s Global Head of Multi-Asset Class Solutions. “Our comprehensive risk models help our joint clients successfully manage to their risk profile. Our growing relationship with FactSet demonstrates our commitment to these principles by giving managers more choice and access to the tools and analytics available in the industry.”

The integration of Axioma furthers FactSet’s commitment to providing comprehensive solutions to investment professionals through collaboration. In addition to offering Axioma’s fundamental and statistical equity risk models, FactSet collaborates with several other risk model providers in the industry, giving investment professionals a choice. 

FactSet is focused on building solutions across the portfolio lifecycle through innovation, acquisition, and strategic relationships to support our clients’ core workflows and help them meet the challenges of this increasingly complex market.

For more information on FactSet’s full suite of analytics applications and services visit http://www.factset.com/analytics. 

FloQast, Inc., a provider of close management software created by accountants for accountants, announced today it has been named among the Best Software to Use in 2017 by G2 Crowd, the world’s leading business software review platform. G2 Crowd, with 100,000+ user reviews, is read by nearly 700,000 software buyers monthly. G2 Crowd affords business buyers transparency when evaluating B2B software technologies, allowing them and their industry-related peers to make more informed purchasing decisions.

FloQast was selected for the Best Software for Finance Teams 2017 list in the Corporate Performance Management (CPM) category and rated highest in customer satisfaction among the eight finalist vendors. The Best CPM Software products are determined by customer satisfaction based on user reviews and market presence, which includes market share, vendor size and social impact. FloQast is rated 4.7 out of 5 stars, receiving more than 29 five-star ratings.

“We are extremely proud that our software was recognized among the best for finance teams. FloQast was built by accountants for accountants, and, as a result, we have built a solution that works exactly the way accountants do. Employees across every department in our Company, including Sales, Support and Development, are former accountants. Their understanding and knowledge of how our customers do their day-to-day jobs is undoubtedly responsible for FloQast earning the highest ratings for customer satisfaction,” said Mike Whitmire, CPA and chief executive officer at FloQast.

“FloQast's users consistently commended the product in 2016. Mid-market users recognized the solution as a stand-out product to be used by finance teams. It received the highest average score for ease of use and quality of support while meeting requirements in Corporate Performance Management (mid-market),” explained Marty Duffy, director of research at G2 Crowd.

G2 Crowd peer reviews are an unfiltered assessment of the technologies that work and don’t. The user reviews are of huge value to organizations looking for guidance when evaluating new technologies. G2 Crowd relies on the power of the crowd to recognize those solutions that deliver real value and frequently identify the next up and coming software companies to watch. To learn how controllers and chief financial officers rate FloQast and use its close management software, read the 35 user reviews on G2 Crowd.

Daimler Financial Services AG announced that it is acquiring the electronic payment services provider PayCash Europe SA. By gaining a foothold in the ePayment business, Daimler AG will be launching its own electronic payment services provider under the “Mercedes pay” brand name.

"'Mercedes pay' is a fundamental component of our mobility and digitization strategy. Daimler's new payment system underscores our ambition, as a leading provider of digital mobility services, to make the products and services we offer even more appealing," said Bodo Uebber, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG responsible for Finance & Controlling and Daimler Financial Services. The parties agreed not to disclose the details of the acquisition.

Klaus Entenmann, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler Financial Services AG stated: "Our philosophy is to provide mobility at your fingertips. ‘Mercedes pay' allows our customers to easily and securely pay for our mobility offerings and services using their smartphones. “Mercedes pay” will mainly benefit customers who, in the future, will only need to provide their payment details one time, in order to be able to use a range of Daimler’s services. This is made possible by the eWallet function, a virtual source of payment.”

“Mercedes pay” will be integrated into Daimler Mobility Services GmbH, a subsidiary of Daimler Financial Services, and incorporates a number of different mobility services, including the market leader in car-sharing, car2go, and the mytaxi taxi app, which operates in nine European countries. In 2016, Daimler Financial Services AG had more than four million financed vehicles in its portfolio for the first time in the company’s history. The company plans to use the new payment system to facilitate these and other financing transactions in the future.

PayCash Europe SA is a financial institution that is regulated by the Luxembourg banking authority with a license for electronic cash. The ePayment company, which was founded in 2012, also offers solutions for cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and eWallet systems, in addition to mobile payment services.

Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, today announced that De Surinaamsche Bank (DSB), the largest commercial bank in Suriname, has extended and expanded its long-standing relationship with Fiserv. DSB will implement DigitalAccess from Fiserv to enable online and mobile banking for retail and commercial customers. In addition, the bank is upgrading to the latest version of the Signature^® core banking platform.

DSB offers retail banking, corporate banking and Suritrust for Asset Management in Suriname. The bank chose to upgrade and implement new Fiserv solutions to create a flexible banking environment that provides them with a single view of the customer to quickly and effectively respond to the needs of both their retail and corporate customers.

“We chose to expand our relationship with Fiserv and enhance our digital offering to keep pace with changing client needs and enable the bank to grow. Our retail banking clients will now have access to the latest mobile banking technology, and our corporate clients will have access to a digital banking service designed specifically for corporate use,” said Sigmund Proeve, Chief Executive Officer, De Surinaamsche Bank. “The new technology upgrades also will help create efficiencies and save resources on daily tasks for our staff.”

DigitalAccess offers a multi-channel, readily deployable solution that provides a rich digital banking platform delivered on any device from desktops to smartphones and tablets. Corporate customers of DSB will have access to a mobile solution for banking for the first time, giving them anytime, anywhere access to manage their business when and where it best fits their lives.

“DSB is listening to its customers, and taking steps to enable them to manage their finances when and where they want. The bank’s investments provide multi-channel services that make life easier for its customers,"said René Salazar, managing director, Latin America, Caribbean and Canada, Fiserv. “As a long-standing client, DSB has seen the value Fiserv brings with proven innovation, scalability and the ability to serve their needs as a financial institution.”

With Signature, bank staff will have a single customer view to help service customers, including automation of manual processes and the elimination of paper in many cases. Branch staff will now have the capability to perform wire transfers. Integrated with the Signature bank platform, DSB will also utilize additional Fiserv solutions including Nautilus^® for document management, Aperio™, a cross-channel customer interaction suite that enables customer relationship management, as well as upgrading Financial Crime Risk Management Platform for anti-money laundering and fraud prevention, and Advantage Payment System for local and international payments processing.

In a world that is moving faster than ever before, Fiserv helps clients deliver solutions that are in step with the way people live and work today – financial services at the speed of life. Learn more at TheSpeedofLife.com.

Geoswift, a leading provider of cross-border payment solutions between China and the rest of the world, announced today that its UK entity, Geoswift UK, has received authorisation as a Payment Institution from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to conduct a more efficient end to end cross-border collection and settlement services to and from China.