The Bank of England has been heavily criticised by a former chairman of the US Federal Reserve for relying on outdated technology for its economic forecasts.

As Finextra pulls the shutters down on 2018, we take a look back at our most popular news items and community engagement activities over the course of the past year. The site will re-open for business on 2 January 2019.

Moving swiftly to the interactive workshop, the session Sustainable Finance Live is known for was hailed as being a rapid cocreation opportunity for attendees and where ideas became reality in just an hour.

A former managing director at Citigroup is suing the bank and COO for unlawful termination on the grounds of allegedly refusing to provide regulators with false information.

ProPicks, an AI-based stock picker provided to subscribers of Investing.com, has outperformed the S&P 500 by almost 50% since its launch last year.

India’s YES Bank has launched an online marketplace where startups from a host of sectors can pitch tools integrated with the lender’s APIs.

Kindle Fire owners in the US have had 500 new Amazon Coins – worth a total of $5 – deposited into their accounts today to mark the launch of the virtual currency for purchasing apps, games and in-app items.

Ashley Lannquist, project lead, blockchain & distributed ledger technology at World Economic Forum, will be taking to the stage at Money 20/20 Europe in Amsterdam to discuss the industry consortia for blockchain innovation on Tuesday this week. Ahead of the session, Finextra spoke to Lannquist about any use cases that have been beneficial for the financial services, the WEF’s work with the technology and how to take an inclusive approach.

ABN Amro is warning customers that their personal details may be at risk after a ransomware attack at one its supplier.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore is investigating a ransomware attack on Toppan Next Tech, a vendor responsible for printing customer statements for DBS Bank and Bank of China (BoC) in Singapore, which exposed the personal data of thousands of customers.

Standard Chartered Bank’s SC Ventures unit is joining forces with Fujitsu to accelerate the development of quantum computing from the research stage to commercial use in financial services.

Mastercard-backed carbon tracking app Doconomy has raised $17 million in a funding round led by CommerzVentures.

EBAday will come to Paris on 27-28 May at the Les Salles du Carrousel.

The BIS Innovation Hub and the Bank of Italy are launching a virtual hackathon-style competition to find new technological ways to tackle challenges in green and sustainable finance.

Cross-border payments company Thunes has raised $150 million in Series D funding, led by Apis Partners and Vitruvian Partners.