From artificial intelligence to the Internet of Things (IoT), far-reaching innovations are unfolding in virtually every technology sector around the globe, continuing to change the way consumers, businesses and machines interact while also spurring the next revolution in tech market growth, according to a new white paper from IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions for the major industries and markets that drive economies worldwide.

For the white paper, IHS Markit surveyed its leading technology experts, who represent various industry segments including advertising, automotive, connected networks, consumer devices, entertainment, displays, media, semiconductors, telecommunications and others. These analysts were asked to provide their informed predictions for the global technology market in the New Year.

The Top Seven Technology Trends for 2017, as identified in this IHS Markit report and listed in no particular order, are as follows:

Trend #1 – Smart Manufacturing Accelerates With More Real-World Products

• Companies use IoT to transform how products are made, how supply chains are managed and how customers can influence design.
• Example: look for automation/operator tech firms to release their own Platforms-as-a Service (PaaS) offering in the cloud as they compete to offer and own IoT projects for the industrial market.

Trend #2 – Artificial Intelligence (AI) Gets Serious

• Already, personified AI assistants from a handful of companies (Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri) have access to billions of users via smartphones and other devices.
• However, even bigger, more profound changes are on their way as levels of human control are ceded directly to AI, such as in autonomous cars or robots.

Trend #3 – The Rise of Virtual Worlds

• After several years of hype, the operative reality behind virtual, augmented and mixed digital worlds is set to manifest more fully in 2017. The technology for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) will advance significantly as Facebook, Google and Microsoft consolidate their existing technologies into more exhaustive strategies.
• New versions of VR-capable game consoles featuring 4K video and high dynamic range (HDR) will also create the medium for high-quality VR content, even if availability will be limited for the next few years.

Trend #4 – The “Meta Cloud” Era Arrives

• Communication service providers plan to deliver a new wave of innovation, allowing for a single connection to the enterprise and acting as a gateway to multiple cloud service providers. IHS Markit refers to this as the meta cloud.
• In 2017, new offerings will become available from traditional Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) vendors, coupled with expanded offers from the likes of IBM, Amazon and— most notably—Google via its Tensor chip. Watch for the development and deployment of more specialized silicon in the next two years.

Trend #5 – A Revolution in New Device Formats

• The development of the consumer drone is the closest example of a product type evolved over the past few years that has quickly gone mass market. 3D printers and pens are heading the same way.
• The next set of new devices may well materialize at the boundary of cheap 3D printing and inexpensive smartphone components to create completely novel device types and uses.

Trend #6 – Solar Still the Largest Source of Renewable New Power

• The next year, 2017, will see photovoltaic (PV) technology retaining—and confirming—its position as the planet’s largest source of new renewable power.
• More than a quarter of all PV capacity added worldwide in 2016 and 2017 will be in the form of solar panels. The growth of solar can be attributed to sharp drops in the cost of PV systems, combined with favorable country policies toward new renewable power.

Trend #7 – Low-Power Technologies Extend Reach to Inaccessible IoT Devices

• The first batch of low-power, wide-area networks (LPWAN) will go live around the world in 2017 as an alternative to short-range wireless standards such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. LPWAN technologies will connect hard-to-reach, IoT devices more efficiently and at a lower cost, dealing with challenges stemming from range limitation to poor signal strength. As a result, opportunities will open up for telecom providers to support low-bit-rate applications.
• In turn, the increased availability and low cost of LPWAN technologies will drive connectivity for smart metering, smart building and precision agriculture, among many other applications.

Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, announced today a series of recognitions for its clients in the Asia Pacific region. These accolades reflect the Fiserv commitment to innovation and enabling best-in-class results for clients and are the latest acknowledgment of the success achieved by Fiserv clients in Asia Pacific.

For initiatives executed in conjunction with Fiserv, Bangkok Bank was shortlisted for Best Consumer Payments Service at the 2016 Banking Technology Awards. At the Asian Banking & Finance Retail Banking Awards 2016, Bangkok Bank was awarded the Mobile Banking Initiative of the Year (Thailand), while Panin Bank won the Online Banking Initiative of the Year (Indonesia). At the 2016 Cards & Electronic Payments International (CEPI) Asia Awards, Bangkok Bank on Best Peer-to-Peer Payments Initiative and was highly commended for the CEPI Asia Leadership Award – Institutional, and Panin Bank was highly commended for the Best Technology Implementation – Front and Back Office Awards. Additionally, Bangkok Bank won Best Mobile Payment Project in Thailand in The Asian Banker Technology Innovation Awards Program 2016.

“We are proud to partner with leading financial institutions like Bangkok Bank and Panin Bank. It’s particularly rewarding to see our clients receive accolades for their new deployments and market-leading upgrades to banking services,” said Marc Mathenz, managing director, Asia Pacific, Fiserv. “Fiserv solutions help our clients create financial services experiences that are essential to everyday life.”

Further details of the winning projects are included below:

Bangkok Bank

Fiserv completed a person-to-person (P2P) payment project for Thailand’s leading commercial bank, Bangkok Bank, as part of its Bualuang mBanking mobile banking application. Bualuang mBanking allows customers to check account balances, manage payments and transfer money between accounts. This level of convenience enables customers to reduce their reliance on cash, facilitating the migration from a cash-based economy and encouraging macro-economic benefits for Thailand.

Panin Bank

Panin Bank upgraded its internet banking, alerting and payments platform to Corillian Online™ from Fiserv. As part of the upgrade, InternetPanin provides security, convenience and ease-of-use for online banking needs, 24/7, nonstop. InternetPanin is available in both English and Indonesian languages and provides a modern look and user-friendly interface to help ensure an enjoyable online banking experience. With enhanced security features, customers can check balances, review transaction history, manage their money, transfer funds, complete foreign exchange transactions, pay people and bills and purchase cellular, utility and entertainment items via their choice of web browser.

Across Asia Pacific, Fiserv solutions are used by 80 clients in 13 countries, including some of the largest banks in Australia, Thailand, and Indonesia. Fiserv provides a range of solutions to clients through its more than 3,000 associates in the region including offices in Sydney and Singapore. Worldwide, Fiserv supports more than 13,000 clients in over 80 countries with more than 22,000 associates, and moves more than $1.5 trillion each year on behalf of its clients.

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.

Munnypot, a new service offering affordable online financial advice, today announces it has soft launched, with the backing of respected industry partners.

Munnypot is a robo-advice and investment service that anyone can use to get straightforward financial advice in a language they can understand, at a fraction of the cost of a financial adviser or wealth manager. Munnypot soft launched to consumers in December and will be ramping up its marketing activity in early 2017.

As well as the previously announced support of SEI, Munnypot’s partners include: Virtual Affairs (Frontend solution provider, specialised in servicing financial clients); Ortec Finance (specialists in Goal-based financial planning); and Five Degrees (Customer Relationship Management and Business Process Management).

Together, these partners have ensured Munnypot has been able to build a sophisticated robo-advice platform to help consumers manage their savings digitally. It provides an intuitive WhatsApp style ‘chat-based’ user-interface that guides people in their savings and investment decisions, using straightforward language and a conversational style.

Simon Redgrove, co-founder of Munnypot, said, "The company we’re keeping says a lot about the huge ambition of Munnypot – we’re planning on shaking up the market and have partnered with some state-of-the-art organisations to help us do that. The initial response we’ve had from consumers has been overwhelmingly positive and we’re looking forward to quickly building our customer base in 2017."

Martijn Hohmann, CEO of Five Degrees, added, “Being a next generation digital banking technology provider, Five Degrees strongly believes in fuelling innovations, redefining customer experience and providing agility. Munnypot represents such a cutting-edge partnership and we will strive to continue to be game changers together in 2017”.

Brett Williams, Managing Director, SEI Wealth Platform, UK Private Banking, commented, “We are delighted to be partnering with Munnypot, which we believe will be a disruptive brand in the UK market and think the company’s user experience, mobile-first design and simplicity will greatly appeal to a broad range of consumers, not just the tech savvy mass affluent millennials. The innovative ongoing alert and messaging framework is extremely powerful and gives customers the chance to be regularly updated on their financial matters.”

Ton Kentgens, Global Business Development at Ortec Finance, said, “Ortec Finance works at the forefront of online financial advice. We develop advanced solutions for individual investors that so far are only available to the institutional market. Consumers are looking for financial advice that fits the context of their lives. We support initiatives to interact with customers using modern technologies, allowing them to achieve their goals by making the right investment decisions."

“Working with a game changer like Munnypot really underlines our ambition in transforming digital channels for international banks and investment companies,” says Robin Peters, Managing Director of Virtual Affairs. “Partnering with Munnypot turned out to be very pleasant and successful, so we can’t wait to see their customer base growing. We move finance forward.”

Munnypot is aiming to address the financial advice gap affecting 16 million people across Britain¹. As of May 2015, 47% of consumers had not received any form of financial advice within the last three years², yet research suggests that the demand is there - up to 5.4 million extra people would consider paying for advice if it cost less³. This is needed, because 57% of UK working adults have less than one month of income saved ⁴. It is widely believed that lack of clear and affordable guidance may be largely to blame.

MetLife in India has launched a new customer service platform available only through a virtual reality headset.

The conVRse platform, launched via MetLife PNB, the insurance firm's joint venture in India, was developed in partership with its inhouse innovation team at Lumen Labs in Singapore.

Advise Technologies, an industry leading provider of regulatory reporting software, is pleased to announce the addition of the Bank of Israel Derivatives Reporting module to the growing regulatory reporting capacity of the Consensus RMS platform.

The Bank of Israel Derivatives Reporting module joins a list of over 20 global regulatory filing modules on the Consensus RMS platform, which covers regulations such as AIFMD Annex IV, Form PF, Form ADV, and PRIIPs KID. Consensus RMS allows firms to prepare, manage, and store all relevant regulatory information on one system. By enabling the use of one set of data across all filings and regulations, Consensus RMS ensures consistency and operational efficiency. It also includes assistive workflow processes, such as regulatory validations and electronic submission.

“As new regulations come out and requirements change, Consensus RMS can calculate, format, and populate the data as the regulators expect. This can be done on all the forms we support, including Bank of Israel reporting,” says Roger van Elderen. “Firms need a built-in workflow and a repeatable process.”

The Bank of Israel reporting requirement, which goes into effect on January 1st 2017, aims to gather detailed data on foreign currency, index, and interest rate derivative trades executed by relevant entities.

In scope are all Israeli banks (including domestic branches of foreign banks), in addition to both Israeli financial institutions and non-Israeli firms whose foreign currency derivative trades in the preceding year exceeded a daily average of 15 million USD. Once the threshold is met, the reporting requirement applies to all executed trades. (Note that the reporting obligation also includes FX spot, which is not typically considered a derivative). Reports are to be submitted not later than one trading day after the trade was executed. A monthly report of the inventory of open such trades is to be submitted not later than one trading day after the end of the month being reported. Firms will need to submit these reports to the Bank of Israel for one year following when the 15 million USD threshold was met.

More information about the new regulation is available on the Bank of Israel website: http://www.boi.org.il/en/NewsAndPublications/LegislationAndRegulations/Pages/Derivatives.aspx

qbeats has announced the addition of articles from Morningstar, Inc., one of the leading providers of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia to its publishing platform. For the first time, qbeats customers (investors, financial advisors, asset managers, and retirement plan providers and sponsors) will be able to access Morningstar content on a pay-per-view basis, powered by qbeats' 'QMV'*. 

Morningstar provides data on nearly 540,000 investment offerings, including stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with real-time global market data on approximately 18.5 million equities, indexes, futures, options, commodities, and precious metals, in addition to foreign exchange and Treasury markets. 

qbeats will apply its quantitative engine to price and distribute content from Morningstar such as "Stock Strategist," "Fund Spy" and "Market Updates" among more. They offer insights into industries and stock ideas based on Morningstar's unique, fundamentals-based approach to stock investing. The a la carte availability of Morningstar's content represents an opportunity for investors looking for independent investment research.

"Over several decades, Morningstar has come to represent a trusted voice in investment research," said Anna Rodriguez, qbeats' CEO. "qbeats is excited to offer a new, three-way payment system that provides consumers and financial experts with choice in how they transact while enabling Morningstar to reach an even wider universe of investors."

Mahindra Comviva, the global leader in providing mobility solutions, today announced the release of the new version of mobiquity® Wallet which comes with an embedded chatbot to assist wallet consumers through their digital payments journey with their banks. The new and improved mobile application provides an intuitive and intelligent conversational interface that helps banks to deliver an interactive and personalized experience to their customers.

As per eDigitalResearch, live chat shows the highest satisfaction levels for any customer service channel with 73% compared to 61% for email and 44% for phone.  This provides banks with the incentive to leverage digital services like chatbots to provide fast and seamless services to their customers and thus provide higher levels of customer satisfaction.  Also, with Gartner predicting that by 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationship with the enterprise without interacting with a human, a chat-based implementation becomes important now.   

Speaking on the occasion Srinivas Nidugondi, SVP and Head, Mobile Financial Solutions, Mahindra Comviva said: “Intelligent payments are the future. Chatbot will make transactions on the digital wallet as simple and seamless as conversing with friends on the social channels, removing complexities in registering for a digital wallet or making payments. Moreover, chatbots will help to improve banking ROIs by automating repeat value transactions as it replaces manned helpdesk.”

“The millennials are already attuned to using chats for almost everything, thanks to the advent of the likes of Google Assistant. Bots are already being used by futuristic banks to drive automation for backend processes. Our intention is to help them extend that to the consumer touch points as well,” he further added.

mobiquity® Wallet 2.4 will provide chatbot based registration and payments services initially, with further plans to expand the services to include context driven interactions as well as integrate artificial intelligence to drive the consumer journey. The combination of artificial intelligence and a customer friendly interface can help to deliver personalized and contextually relevant solutions across various delivery channels.

mobiquity® Wallet offers a feature-rich digital wallet for consumers and a robust and flexible platform for service providers and their partners. It combines innovations in payments with attention to the human factor, behavior-centered experience design, and innovative digital technology. Designed to support a large and complex ecosystem, mobiquity® Wallet enables financial institutions, retailers, telecom operators and other consumer service providers to re-engage and connect directly with their consumers, drive growth, and strengthen their brand by staying abreast of an ever-evolving market and consumer behavior.  mobiquity® Wallet brings an evolution in mobile commerce by integrating payments, identity, loyalty, mobile marketing, location and social features. It leverages NFC (HCE), BLE, QR Codes, biometrics, geofencing and sound based payments creating compelling consumer experiences. With lots of new consumers being brought on-board the wallet idea, there is a need to cater to an ever increasing number of new customer segments with unique requirements of their own. mobiquity® Wallet platform provides a unique service creation platform which allows for easy customization of customer experience and quick turnaround to the market with these customizations.

Today, Ovum, a leading technology analyst and consulting firm, has announced Backbase as a Market Leader in its latest report, ‘Ovum Decision Matrix: Selecting a Digital Banking Platform, 2017-2018’.

Ovum’s report provides guidance for retail and universal banks in their vendor shortlisting process by assessing the top vendors on the market. The Decision Matrix Ovum summarizes of each vendor's digital banking platform’s capabilities based on a quantitative assessment of its market impact in the digital channel platform market globally and the quality and breadth of functionality provided by the platform and underlying technology. Alongside this, the report also assesses of each vendor's execution capabilities.

The digital banking landscape has become more competitive and banks have had to further innovate to retain their customers, achieve a seamless omni-channel experience and maintain their competitive advantage. The Decision Matrix emphasizes that excellent experience in digital channels is increasingly becoming a differentiator in the banking industry, selecting a digital banking platform is a decision that will have a great impact on the competitive capability of a bank for the next three to four years.

The Decision Matrix assesses vendors’ solutions over three dimensions of market impact, technology and execution – across which Backbase scored exceptionally high. This is the second time in a row Backbase has been nominated as a Market Leader by Ovum.

Ovum’s decision to name Backbase as a Market Leader speaks to the platform’s unique ability to empower banks to effectively service the needs of their digital customers, and notes its state-of-the-art technology and rapid digital transformation capabilities.  

Jouk Pleiter, CEO of Backbase commented: “We are very proud to be rated market leader the second time in row by Ovum.This truly demonstrates our commitment in constantly evolving and improving our platform and banking in order to meet market needs. We’ve been delivering great mobile apps and complete omni-channel projects for the past few years for the world's leading financial institutions, and it’s wonderful to be recognised and rewarded for this.”

Noora Haapajärvi, author of the Ovum Decision Matrix added: “Backbase's Digital Banking Platform is the leading solution on the digital banking platform market. The solution provides banks with the tools to develop a compelling experience on digital channels. The Backbase Digital Banking Platform is particularly suitable for larger banks and their more complex legacy environments, as well as for banks with a desire to have a leading-edge digital experience. Ovum recommends that banks shortlist Backbase’s Digital Banking Platform when searching for a competitive digital banking platform solution.”