Bank of America Merrill Lynch today announced the launch of a new electronic platform, Instinct® Loans, for the secondary trading of syndicated corporate loans.

Infosys Finacle, part of EdgeVerve Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Infosys (NYSE: INFY) and Paytm, India’s largest mobile payments and commerce platform, today announced that the Finacle Core Banking solution has been selected to power Paytm’s new payments bank business.

 Regulatory SaaS technology leader Opus announced today thatAlacra, its KYC and reference data management platform, has signed a distribution partnership with OutsideIQ, the leader in risk-focused, artificial intelligence software. The agreement will make OutsideIQ’s DDIQ, the industry’s most advanced automated due diligence reports for compliance, available on Alacra, effective immediately. DDIQ uses  artificial intelligence to simulate the cognitive processes of a human researcher to generate risk profiles on individuals and companies that are otherwise time consuming and costly to discover manually.

Alacra is the leading platform for client onboarding and Know Your Customer (KYC) solutions for financial institutions, while DDIQ is an industry-first, automated due diligence solution for AML, fraud investigations, third-party vendor screening, anti-bribery and anti-corruption compliance. The new partnership will allow the DDIQ due diligence reports to be available through Alacra-On-Demand, Alacra’s research fulfillment service. Later this year, DDIQ risk assessment reports will also be available through Alacra Compliance Enterprise (ACE), its flagship client onboarding solution.

DDIQ’s reports generate risk profiles on both companies and individuals in just minutes, providing comprehensive and in-depth global due diligence information. As the reports provide links to the data sources, they are fully auditable.  This capability is even more critical as recent and upcoming changes to global KYC regulations will require the identification of and due diligence on beneficial owners. 

“Alacra customers consistently ask us to identify new sources of information to help evaluate and reduce risk,” says Steve Goldstein, vice chairman of Opus.  “DDIQ makes amazing use of artificial intelligence to create reports and provide a fast and effective view of an entity’s risk profile that can be used for enhanced due diligence. In conjunction with Alacra, DDIQ can be used as part of a firm’s workflow and for ad-hoc checks by banks, law and private equity firms, corporates, VCs, i.e. practically any organization that needs a fast and thorough risk assessment.”

"Alacra has a best-in-class solution that enables customers to manage due diligence in-house efficiently and we are excited to bring the auditable due diligence coverage that DDIQ is able to achieve to their customers," says Dan Adamson, CEO of OutsideIQ.  "By partnering with Alacra to bring DDIQ into its platform, we are creating a solution that ensures the depth of research is both thorough and highly efficient."

 Fidessa group  announced that it has signed a contract to provide cross-asset execution services to ABN AMRO Clearing (AAC). This allows AAC to offer its clients low-latency access to more than 110 futures, options, equities and FX markets worldwide via a globally consistent interface, delivered out of 11 key locations around the world.

AAC is one of the world’s leading providers of clearing and financing services, handling over 16 million trades per day and covering the world’s leading exchanges across Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific. AAC consistently ranks among the top three clearers in every time zone, based on turnover and market share.

Prior to this deal, AAC utilised numerous ISV gateways and in-house systems. Fidessa's new service will intermediate execution from these ISVs, preserving freedom of choice whilst increasing efficiency. For the past 3 years, Fidessa has been investing heavily in both its infrastructure and its execution technology stack, culminating in the development of a fully-managed, cross-asset platform with global reach and routing that insulates brokers from the ever-changing trading landscape.

"After a broad RFP process and thorough due diligence effort, Fidessa came up as the most suitable partner for AAC", said James Fairweather, Head of Global Execution Services at AAC. "Their global offering and professional approach are a perfect fit for the AAC global clearing proposition and strategy."

David Polen, Global Head of Electronic Execution at Fidessa, added: "We are committed to delivering globally consistent and performant trading systems. AAC selecting Fidessa is a great endorsement of our technology. We are delighted to be working with them to deliver the global routing, visibility and risk management that they need on a cross-asset trading platform."

Fidessa was voted Best Front Office Execution Platform for the second year running at the Waters' Sell-Side Technology Awards in April, the seventh award for the firm's sell-side platform in the past twelve months.

New York-based financial magazine Global Finance announced The Innovators 2016 - Islamic Finance. The magazine has ranked Path Solutions a 2016 Innovator in Islamic Finance for its innovative iMAL Islamic banking platform.

The Innovators of Global Finance provides a ranking of companies and financial institutions that are doing most in their offerings and technological advancement. The Innovators has been a regular feature in Global Finance and with growing demand for innovation in Islamic finance, the publication launched its first annual listing of Sharia-compliant financial institutions and service providers that have fully recognised the critical importance of software and service innovation together with industry know-how.

“Year by year, we strive to innovate in our solutions by always introducing the latest advancements in platform and technology, and we continue to expand the range of Sharia-compliant software solutions we offer, and constantly review and enhance the quality of our services. We are glad that our efforts and the delivered results have again been recognized by industry experts”, said Mohammed Kateeb, Path Solutions’ Group Chairman & CEO. “We owe this effort in no small part to Global Finance for including for the first time The Innovators in Islamic Finance in their coverage and to the distinguished panel of judges for their time and effort reviewing and judging the submitted nominations”.  

All selections were made by the editorial board of Global Finance. The board considered nominations and submissions, key research and the input of experts in evaluating those financial institutions and service providers that stand out for their transformative solutions and outstanding service. The OECD’s Oslo Manual of Innovation was referenced when considering firms for inclusion. The Oslo Manual spells out four types of innovation: Product innovation; process innovation; marketing innovation and organizational innovation.

Path Solutions features in The Innovators 2016 list for Process Innovation for its ground-breaking iMAL Islamic banking platform. The Process Innovation category is for new or significantly improved production or delivery method. This includes changes in techniques, equipment and software.

“Innovation is fast gaining ground in Islamic finance, not only between Islamic financial institutions but also between these and conventional banks”, said Joseph D. Giarraputo, Publisher and Editorial Director of Global Finance. “We recognize the innovators both among Islamic financial institutions and tech companies that are helping to improve the infrastructure, banking and financial solutions benefiting both institutions and customers”. According to Giarraputo, this year’s winners may not be the largest or the oldest on the market, but rather the best at providing world-class solutions and services to their target group.

The 2016 Innovators will be invited to attend and collect The Innovation in Islamic Finance trophies in London on October 18^th. The Innovators 2016 - Islamic Finance list will be published in Global Finance’s The Innovators Special Issue in June 2016.

Global Finance is part of Class Editori Group, a leading Italian finance and media company. Class Editori is listed on the Borsa Italiana stock exchange. It has a strong digital presence and international partnerships with Dow Jones and NBC.

The full list of The Innovators 2016 - Islamic Finance is shown here: https://www.gfmag.com/media/press-releasess/global-finance-names-innovators-2016 and here:https://d2tyltutevw8th.cloudfront.net/media/document/the-innovators-2016-islamic-finance-1462824371.pdf

Path Solutions, the largest provider of Sharia-compliant core banking systems, is delighted to announce a double award win, where it scooped the highly prestigious ‘Best Technology Provider’ and Best Banking Solution’ for the company’s Islamic core banking system iMAL, at The Asset Triple A Islamic Finance Awards 2016.

Commenting on this achievement, Mohammed Kateeb, Path Solutions’ Group Chairman & CEO, said: “We are pleased to have been selected ‘Best Technology Provider’, and that iMAL is recognized one more time as the leader in the Islamic core banking system space, standing out in the very competitive technology market. We’d like to thank The Asset’s panel of judges for conferring us these highly esteemed awards which recognize exceptional innovation and world-class expertise in developing cutting-edge software solutions for the Islamic financial services industry”.

Kateeb added, “These accolades underscore the fact that our competitive Islamic software solutions are leading the way in delivering significant benefits and adding real value to our clients”.

The Asset Triple A Awards are Asia’s defining recognition for excellence in the industry. Into their second decade, the perception and appreciation of The Triple A’s has witnessed significant growth. This reputation has been built upon a stringent methodology, combined with a rigorous approach to the selection of the winners of the coveted Triple A. The awards are adjudicated by The Asset’s Board of Editors who collectively has several decades’ worth of evaluating industry awards in Asia.

The Asset Triple A Islamic Finance Awards 2016 Luncheon will be held on Tuesday 24 May at the Sabah Ballroom, Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur.