Polish mobile payment system BLIK receives authorisation in Romania
BLIK will now facilitate transactions in the national currency and be available to all authorised Romanian PSPs.
Europe
TrueLayer extends Series E by $50m amid rising tax losses
The raise comes after TrueLayer’s tax losses rose nearly 40% to £55.6 million last year.
Swift gears up for 2025 live trials of digital asset transactions
The trials will see banks use Swift to transact interchangeably across asset and currency types.
Zepz secures $267m Series F led by Accel
The cash injection adds to a $292 million Series E round raised in 2021.
Austria’s Ixopay appoints Ronnie Thomson as new CTO
The hire comes after Ixopay merged with US data tokenisation firm TokenEx in April.
ICYMI fintech funding round-up: Plumery, Concreit, Connected Data, and more
A handy round-up of the recent funding endeavours of fintech companies across the globe.
HSBC reportedly writes off remaining $5.8m stake in UK fintech Monese
HSBC invested $35 million in Monese just two years ago.
Ex-TNEX chief Bryan Carroll heads new Credit-Decisioning-as-a-Service start-up SMEApprove
The platform seeks to assist banks in lending to underserved SME clients across emerging markets.
Furness Building Society selects Backbase for digital banking overhaul
Furness has chosen to integrate the full Backbase platform, including digital onboarding, assist and banking.
The end of Lloyds Banking Group?
If banking were a race, it would be an ultramarathon. It’s better to be slow and steady like the tortoise.
HSBC launches embedded finance venture SemFi with Tradeshift
SemFi provides embedded payment, trade and financing solutions from HSBC.
Secure Trust Bank’s head of payments and cards to step down
Having joined the bank in 2021, Higham says “the time is coming very shortly to move on”.
FCA fines Starling Bank £29m for sanctions screening failures
Starling was found to have opened over 54,000 accounts for high-risk customers.
Hastings Direct Loans boosts fraud prevention capabilities with IDVerse partnership
Hastings Direct expanded into personal loans around three years ago.
Demystify Podcast: The evolution of open banking in the UK with Charlotte Crosswell and Henk Van Hulle
An engaging journey into the UK’s open banking, its growing influence, and the exciting possibilities ahead.
Mastercard acquires Minna Technologies to upgrade subscription experience
Minna develops technology to help consumers manage subscriptions via banking apps and websites.
UK fintech infrastructure platform Manigo enters administration
Sources tell FinTech Futures that the administration was expedited when a “big project failed”.
Facit Bank taps Norway’s Neonomics to power invoicing and payment with open banking
Facit Bank will deploy Neonomics’ open banking Checkout, allowing payments directly from bank accounts.
Sonali Bangladesh UK selects Finastra Essence for core banking tech overhaul
The new core system will support both conventional and Islamic banking at SBUK.
HSBC group COO John Hinshaw steps down after five years
Hinshaw has over 30 years of experience, holding key roles at Accenture, Boeing, and HPE.
EPI’s Wero goes live in France
The EPI previously launched Wero in Germany in July, and will also target Belgium this year.
New UK fintech Covecta launches configurable AI platform
The Covecta platform’s first release will be available in both the UK and the US.
BNKA launches new payments function for LATAM migrants in Europe
BNKA is enabling migrants in Europe to pay bills in Argentina.
Redpin strengthens leadership team with key additions
The newest team member is CTO Yoav Flam, formerly in the same role at HelloFresh.
ICYMI fintech funding round-up: Outgo, Mifundo, Mesa, Simpler, and more
A handy round-up of the recent funding endeavours of fintech companies across the globe.
Visa to buy AI-powered fraud detection firm Featurespace
Visa says it expects to close the transaction in FY 2025.
UK fintech Apron secures $30m in Zinal Growth-led Series B
This round builds on Apron’s $15 million Series A secured in September 2023.
Chetwood Financial’s co-founder and CEO Andy Mielczarek to step down
Former JN Bank CEO Paul Noble has been unveiled as Mielczarek’s successor.
Nexi Group lands €220m financing from the EIB
The loan is the first to be granted by the EIB to a publicly listed company in the digital payments sector.
Solaris to “discontinue major parts” of EMI business
Solaris says the move “regrettably will bring redundancies across the EMI team”.
New UK lender Interbridge Mortgages taps Mambu for retail mortgages solution
Founded last year and headquartered in Cardiff, Interbridge Mortgages is a second charge mortgage lender.
Rimes hires Gus Macfarlane as new chief operating officer
Macfarlane joins Rimes from Barclays, where he spent over six years in various managing director roles.
Wealthtech start-up for women Propelle launches in the UK
Propelle has secured over £1.2 million in pre-seed funding to date.
Uday Bola joins Target Group as new head of solution design
Before joining Target, Bola was a lending transformation consultant at Penrith Building Society.
Tuum names former Vocalink head David Yates as new chairman
Yates currently serves as chairman of Nium and vice chairman at Equiniti.
Anadolubank Nederland pens five-year deal with Worldline for cloud-based instant payments solution
Worldline’s solution will ensure the bank’s compliance with new EU instant payments regulations.
Payments infrastructure start-up Kevin reportedly declared insolvent by court in Lithuania
Regional news outlet 15min reports that the court has now opened up a bankruptcy case.
BNP Paribas to acquire HSBC’s private banking division in Germany
BNP Paribas anticipates the deal will boost its AUM to €40 billion.
SME app Countingup hires ClearScore’s Dan Elias as head of product
Countingup has also hired a new head of compliance and head of marketing.
OneAZ Credit Union to deploy Backbase’s Engagement Banking platform
OneAZ operates 20 branches across Arizona and claims to manage over $3.4 billion in assets.
