SBI Ripple Asia is a joint-venture company established by Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings and San Francisco-based FinTech startup Ripple. Ripple is to work with financial institutions in South Korea to bring enterprise blockchain solutions for cross-border payments with Japanese banks.

HSBC has launched facial recognition technology in China to enable customers to make payments with a selfie.

Yolt, the UK money management app developed in-house by ING’s Innovation Office in Amsterdam, has added a host of new features.

AXA has launched a blockchain-based product to offer insurance. Named Fizzy, it offers automatic and direct late flight compensation for air passengers. The product is being trialed for air passengers between Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and the United States in either direction.

Where did ransomware Petya originate? Microsoft knows
Companies across the globe are reporting that they have been struck by a major ransomware cyber-attack. It is not yet known if the malware is a new threat or a more sophisticated version of the Petya malware that was used in an attack last spring. The virus freezes the user’s computer and demands an untraceable ransom be paid in the digital Bitcoin currency.

Earlier this month Microsoft Corp. announced the Coco Framework, an innovation that is presumed to advance enterprise adoption of blockchain technology.