Student Loans Company hit by 5.5m email attacks in 2019
The public body blocked and quarantined all the listed attempts.
Europe
Swift’s ISO 20022 migration set back a year to November 2022
“The new approach will avoid short-lived investments by customers,” says Swift.
Expense management start-up Payhawk lands $3.3m seed capital
The round was led by N26-backer Earlybird.
Travelex owner Finablr prepares for insolvency
Finablr processed $115 billion in transactions in 2019, and more than 1,500 firms rely on it.
Monzo launches first business banking accounts
UK challenger bank steps into the business space with new accounts.
Revolut loses CFO after just six months, brings in interim CFO from SLA
David MacLean joined Revolut from Metro Bank last July.
Challenger bank Arro Money to shut down in April
The challenger bank’s operator wants to go in a “new direction”.
Santander snaps up Nationwide’s deputy CEO to support UK transformation
The Spanish multinational bank has committed €20bn to its digital transformation.
Underpinned helps companies pay freelancers with Banked
“The number of people choosing freelance work has grown rapidly,” says UnderPinned CEO.
Al Ansari Exchange chooses Pelican’s AI-based AML solution
Al Ansari Exchange hopes to create “an industry-leading compliance framework”.
Central banks free up US dollar liquidity amid coronavirus pandemic
The price on the US dollar liquidity swap arrangements will go down by 25 basis points.
Yapeal awarded Switzerland’s first fintech licence
Challenger plans to reinvent retail banking in the country.
ING invests $5m in natural language processing start-up Eigen
The capital from ING brings Eigen’s total Series B to $42 million.
UK challenger ikigai to launch flat-fee investment account
“I think the pain points are quite similar across different income levels,” says co-founder.
Tandem launches AI personal finance adviser Ada
The AI assistant can predict cashflow, spending patterns and forecast balances.
What can we expect in the next decade?
From big data and cloud to developments in distributed ledger technology and more.
Accuity buys London fintech Apply Financial
The deal builds on Accuity’s account validation solutions for FIs.
EBA suspends EU banks’ stress tests over coronavirus impact
European regulator encourages flexibility in reaction to the virus.
Santander buys Spanish fintech Mercury TFS
Santander hopes the deal will enhance its global trade platform operations.
Revolut launches gold trading for Premium and Metal users
The neobank will apply a 0.25% markup, with no other fees.
FCA issues coronavirus cryptocurrency scam warning
UK watchdog tells investors to be wary of deals too good to be true.
Global fintech funding: 2018 still stands as the reigning year
As of February 2020, year-over-year deal counts were down by 22%.
Wirecard strikes again with Klarna payments partnership
Also this week, Wirecard teamed with Southeast Asian ride-sharing firm Grab.
Nets buys Polish payment provider PeP for $455m
PeP moves to Nets with expected net revenues of roughly $62 milllion for 2020.
Funding Circle plans to cut 125 jobs in Berlin and Amsterdam
P2P firm reacts to poor year in external markets by cutting back.
Payments trends and the “first world unbanked”
Cash is the most inclusive financial instrument, and many firms seem to forget this fact.
Neyber sells up to biggest rival Salary Finance
The sale is “understood to have seen Neyber’s assets sold for a meagre sum”.
UK treasury expected to push back sale of its RBS stake to 2025
A further five-year delay is put down to “turbulent stock markets”.
Budget 2020: What’s the fintech impact?
FinTech Futures picks out the fintech tidbits in this week’s announcement.
FCA plans market changes to simplify mortgage switching
UK watchdog concerned that non-switching consumers are left out of pocket.
HSBC posts 47.8% overall pay gap, nearly double industry average
HSBC’s female employees are earning nearly half of what their male counterparts are.
Rizq launches in UK as Sharia-compliant challenger bank
Rizq plans to benchmark itself as close as possible to existing challengers.
UK banks prop up SMEs with £7bn amid coronavirus outbreak
The banks are also deferring customers’ payments on loans and mortgages for up to three months.
Finantix acquires Swiss AI firm InCube
The private banking tech vendor plans to boost solutions with AI.
Metro Bank partners with ezbob to launch SME lending platform
The bank claims businesses will receive loans in minutes.
Lloyds signs customer experience deal with Google Cloud
UK bank to deploy Google cloud services to “improve customer experience.”
Revolut seeking UK banking licence before year end
The neobank currently only has one banking licence in Lithuania.
Tesco Banks lands Balmer as new chief information officer
New CIO arrives to lead bank’s IT division.
FCA to review data and analytics in wholesale financial markets
UK watchdog calls for input on market use of advanced analytics.
OakNorth Bank’s profits nearly double in 2019 but growth slows
The SoftBank-backed lender did see a slow down in its total loan facilities.
