“One has to understand that the proposition that IT stands for – low-cost IT infrastructure and services – for the global organisation is not changing.”
Tushar Pradhan, chief information officer at HSBC AMC, commenting on the technology and IT space.

Corporate Development

US financial technology vendor Trading Technologies International has reduced its workforce by a sixth, laying off up to 100 employees, with software engineering, IT support ad sales roles all being axed.

UK exchange operator Plus Markets has announced that it has received a number of indicative proposals from interested parties since putting itself for sale in February.

MasterCard has announced a new structure for the Middle East and Africa business, with the MEA business to comprise the Middle East and North Africa, Sub Sahara Africa and South Africa, clustering a total of 69 markets. This change will enable MasterCard to get closer to its customer banks, merchants and consumers in the market.

Core Banking

Nigeria’s Wema Bank announced the successful implementation of Finacle core banking, retail e-banking and treasury solutions across its 137 branches in Nigeria within eight months.

SAP will work closely with Citibank and the Royal Bank of Scotland to deliver a new, innovative solution, a cloud-based services platform, to seamlessly integrate banks with their corporate customers.

Egypt’s Faisal Islamic Bank has signed a phased agreement with International Turnkey Systems, a leading solutions provider for Islamic banks, to deploy Ethix-Financial Solutions as part of its expansion plans in the Islamic banking sector.

E-Channels

The State Bank of India