UK fintech B-Social raises £7.8m ahead of ‘Kroo’ rebrand
The fintech has “significantly progressed” with its pre-application for a UK bank licence
Europe
Small business lender iwoca raises €100m for German loan growth
The company says it is the largest fintech small business lender in Germany.
Banking Circle nabs first banking licence from Luxembourg regulators
Banking Circle’s operation centers in the UK, Germany and Denmark will turn into bank branches.
Europe’s joint largest fintech start-up Klarna reports its first annual loss
The operational loss is down to its US expansion and its set up of a Berlin-based tech hub.
Four lessons learned about fraud in 2019
We look back at the year gone by to see what lessons we can take with us this year.
ConsenSys-backed start-up Apex:E3 launches analytics platform
Initially focusing on digital assets, the fintech will branch out to more traditional asset classes in the future.
BBVA joins $1.3m round for UK gig economy start-up Wollit
It’s one of the first to evolve out of BBVA’s ‘Venture Creation Partnership’ with Anthemis.
SimCorp picks GlobalLogic to refit Dimension on the cloud
SimCorp sees cloud as an important investment for Dimension.
Revolut bags $500m from TCV to drive daily account usage
The challenger wants to “accelerate daily usage of accounts”.
UK fintech global investor figures for 2019 propped up by Worldpay deal
88% of the figure is made up of the Worldpay mega deal.
Mastercard plans to triple Irish workforce with 1,500 hires
Credit card giant leases three new buildings in Dublin.
Goldman Sachs-backed salary lender Neyber in talks with administrators
Neyber secured £100 million from Goldman Sachs in 2017.
Sogexia nabs Luxembourg licence, starts migrating 180k UK customers
Neobank mitigates Brexit impact with new EU payment licence.
SoftBank to invest $100m in UK-based AI start-up Behavox
Behavox’s investment would be the fifth Vision Fund capital injection for a UK firm.
JP Morgan plans launch of digital consumer bank in UK
The US bank has been in discussions with UK financial regulators.
Exclusive: Unite Global gets $5.25m from Svea to launch cross-border payments hub
The new hub will select 8-12 partner banks to deliver global instant payments.
A look ahead to strong customer authentication
It’s vital that we use the year ahead to invest in long-term consumer testing.
Video: Top fintech stories this week – 21 February 2020
FinTech Futures’ weekly news round-up.
Lloyds profits drop as PPI legacy takes its toll
The bank has eight times more than expected for PPI claims.
EU report omits Big Tech GDPR decision, Google moves UK data to US
UK users’ data stored by Google is no longer under GDPR laws.
Sweden starts piloting e-krona on R3’s Corda platform
Sweden’s CBDC is using R3’s Corda Enterprise Blockchain platform.
Barclays spies on staff, CEO investigated for Epstein links
The technology tells staff to mute their phones and avoid breaks.
UK’s new £20 note arrives as campaigners warn cash system could collapse
Access to Cash Review calls for new laws to protect cash as the digital revolution advances.
UBS appoints ING’s Ralph Hamers as next chief executive
Hamers will step down from ING at the end of June and join UBS in September.
Standard Chartered commits $75bn to sustainable development
Infrastructure projects to get $40bn, whilst renewable energy and clean tech to get $35bn.
OTB Ventures raises $100m for Central and Eastern European tech start-ups
OTB aims to fill its portfolio with 16 CEE companies by 2022.
Wirecard and Raiffeisen Bank team up to serve Eastern European markets
Raiffeisen Bank will use Wirecard to process payments across 13 Eastern European countries.
Belfius Bank goes live on SimCorp Dimension
The Belgian bank deploys SimCorp in retail, corporate, and investment banking.
Inaccuracies of facial recognition: security, prejudice, pollution and fashion
The issue of accuracy is one which is often cited but rarely explained.
Wematch hosts “first fully electronic” Eurex-LCH basis swap trade
The swap was piloted between Societe Generale and LBBW.
Opel Bank becomes first European lender to pick FIS Modern Banking Platform
FIS follows up its Union Bank deal with a new partner in Germany.
Aussie challenger Hay launched by UK’s Shawbrook Bank ex-employees
The challenger is headquartered in New South Wales with offices in London and Belfast.
Intesa Sanpaolo makes €4.9bn bid for rival UBI
UBI Banca is Italy’s fifth largest bank.
Taking chances: An interview with Chuka Ikele, legal counsel at CrossLend
Drawing connections between the correlation of law and finance.
Fiserv completes PIN on Mobile pilot in Poland
The tech vendor worked with Visa, Samsung and PayCore to test new product.
Mastercard plans its first European cybersecurity centre
The Cyber Resilience Centre will work with European cybersecurity agencies.
HSBC to cut 35,000 jobs in a major restructure to boost returns
Job loss figure more than triple the number expected to be cut by the bank.
FCA: Innovative fintech entrants putting some customers at risk
UK watchdog warns of customer risk exposure from flashy fintech firms.
Pay.UK processes £7.4 trillion worth of transactions in 2019
The payment operator saw 500 million more transactions in 2019 compared to 2018.
Moneybarn hit with £32.8m bill for not helping indebted customers
The firm did not treat customers fairly who had fallen into debt over a three year period.
