Jan252017

Financial technology company Monitise to expand its Nantgarw-based team

Welsh Government
image_pdfimage_print

The expansion, which will see the specialist in financial services technology retain 34 high-value jobs in Wales as well as creating 26 new jobs, is backed by £527,000 business finance from the Welsh Government.

The focus for the investment and expansion will be the continued development of FINKit®, a new comprehensive cloud-based platform launched last year and set up specifically to enable banks and financial services organisations to transform and accelerate the delivery of their digital services to customers.

The new jobs will support the existing FINKit® development team as it continues to design, build, test, and service this new platform. FINKit® delivers bank-grade security and is geared towards helping banks innovate more rapidly and cost-effectively and interact with their customers via smartphone, tablet, PC, digital TV, smartwatch, or any other digital medium. 

Economy Secretary Ken Skates said:

“Fintech is an area of huge growth potential, and attracting investment into this sector is a key focus for both the ICT and financial and professional services sector strategies.

“That Monitise has chosen to reinforce its team in Nantgarw, rather than create these new jobs in London or its other locations, is evidence of the expertise and experience to be found in the growing fintech ecosystem in Wales.”

Will Jones, MD Europe at Monitise Group, said: “There is an impressive pool of technology talent in Wales, and in particular in the Cardiff area. We are pleased to be able to support the continued growth of the industry here as we expand the team of pioneers working on FINKit to empower banks to provide better, more innovative products and services for their customers.”

Jan252017

Scottish exports to UK four times higher than to rest of EU

Scottish Conservatives
image_pdfimage_print
  • Home
  • All News
  • Scottish exports to UK four times higher than to rest of EU

25 Jan 2017

IN PIC................. (c) Wullie Marr/DEADLINE NEWS For pic details, contact Wullie Marr........... 07989359845

Official Scottish Government figures have today revealed that Scotland’s trade to the UK is four times the sum exported to the European internal market.

The figures show that, in 2015, Scotland’s trade with England, Wales and Northern Ireland amounted to £49.8 billion. This compared to £12.3 billion for the EU internal market.

The figures show that the USA is Scotland’s top international trading partner, with £4.6 billion exports.

Responding to the figures, Scottish Conservative Finance spokesman Murdo Fraser said:

“Once again, the facts are making it clear that our own Union of nations is Scotland’s essential union on which our prosperity depends.

“Europe is a vital market place for us too – which is why we want to see a comprehensive free trade deal with the EU following Brexit.

“But these figures show that to prioritise the EU market before our own Union – as the SNP wants – is absurd.

“Quite simply, thousands of jobs depend on our ability to trade within the UK without any barriers in our way.

“These are the Scottish Government’s own figures – which makes it all the more astonishing that the SNP is determined to ignore them by continuing its ideological pursuit of separation.

“The Nationalists would put jobs and trade at risk simply because they don’t like the United Kingdom.

“We have had it confirmed again: the UK is four times as important to Scotland as the EU in trade, and the SNP must recognise this immediately by ditching its unwanted and divisive plan for a second referendum on independence.”

The figures are available here:
http://news.gov.scot/news/scotlands-exports-increase

Jan252017

Shanghai railway police seize over 50 ivory products

East Asia
image_pdfimage_print

Shanghai railway police arrested two men illegally carrying more than 50 ivory products, bought in Zimbabwe, as they were about to board a train.

A thin man, who appeared to have a disproportionally large stomach, raised the suspicions of security staff at Shanghai Railway station Tuesday night.

Inspectors found a long cloth bag, wrapped around his midriff, contained 10 ivory products and a further three strings of ivory products in his backpack.

Meanwhile, police captured the man’s companion, who attempted to flee, finding more than 30 ivory products in his suitcase.

The pair, from Taihe County, eastern China’s Anhui Province, flew to Shanghai from Zimbabwe where they worked for the last year, and planned to return to their hometown by train.

The thin man, surnamed Li, said he had made the cloth bag to hide the ivory products on his body, hoping to avoid police checks.

Zoologists with the local wildlife conservation association said that the products were made from African elephant ivory.