Financial Industry Tech.

Actimize has leapfrogged its competitors as its parent company, NICE, announces its purchase of Fortent, formerly known as SearchSpace.

Hardware data encryption specialist Futurex has opened an office in Singapore having won several contracts in AsiaPac in recent months.

Bankers Almanac has added online document verification to its Due Diligence Repository, a service to aid due diligence on banking counter-parties.

Jack Henry Associates is to buy Goldleaf Financial Solutions, Inc. to gain access to global market. Goldleaf specialises in remote deposit applications.

As the drive to reduce counter-time by customers intensifies, Diebold has installed more than 25,000 cash deposit machines in the USA.

HSBC and US company U.S.-based Global Payments Inc. have formed a joint venture to improve the speed and reliability of credit card clearing in both high-volume and emerging markets.

Italian software company Ontonix says that it specialises in "complexity management." And that, it says, means that it can simplify complex issues quickly, easily and cost-effectively. Including risk-assessing banks. The company claims that it means that it can overcome weaknesses of current risk-rating methods.

Nortel Networks, which has been making inroads into the financial services software market has filed for protection from its creditors in its home base of Canada. And that means additional threats in the banking sector already facing significant risks from a variety of problems.