Mastercard nabs UK market share with NatWest debit deal
Card issuer will now account for one in three debit cards in the UK.
Europe
Santander’s profits down 35%, but Botín bets on vaccine for 2021
“Vaccination is the most important economic policy for 2021,” says Botín.
Reinvention: the lessons banks can learn from Bowie and Madonna
Madonna or Bowie consistently reinvented themselves to adapt to change and stay relevant.
Form3 appoints ACI Worldwide’s Jessica Letterman as new customer chief
Letterman joins after 13 years at her previous employer.
HMRC awards Ecospend “largest” open banking contract valued at £3m
“Today marks a big step forward for adoption,” says OBIE.
Checkout hires ex-Twilio and WeWork execs for “public market” experience
The fintech has been the subject of much IPO talk.
Société Générale revamps private banking in Europe with Azqore
SocGen’s Luxembourg, Monaco, and Swiss locations switching up their tech.
FCA and UK Treasury “acting swiftly” to regulate fast-growing BNPL firms
The FCA is anxious about the number of citizens who will find themselves in debt.
Acquiring pricing models
A breakdown of the benefits and challenges presented by each merchant pricing model.
ING rolls out integrated retail cashback service DealWise in Germany
The bank originally planned to launch the integration last year.
Oxbury Bank goes live on Naqoda core banking system
The two have worked together since Oxbury’s inception
Starling hires BoE policy head Cordelia Kafetz to lead risk ops
Kafetz wants to “drive innovation in a more tangible way”.
UK fintechs Token and Tradeteq get investment
$15m for open banking payments platform Token and $9.4m for trade finance tech specialist Tradeteq.
Starling set to raise £200m led by US investor Fidelity at $1.5bn valuation
The challenger’s eventual aim is to go public in the coming years.
Fintech trends watch 2021: checkouts, wealthtech and SCA
Our resident Gen Z’er, Ruby Hinchliffe, shares her three predictions for 2021.
The 2020s: how the way we pay will change forever
Consumers started to move from contactless to contact-free in 2020.
New funding for European fintechs Compeon and SESAMm
Germany-based Compeon lands €15 million and France-based SESAMm – €7.5 million.
HSBC, Microsoft, and Santander back Included VC’s diversity fellowship
The fellowship’s latest 48-person-strong cohort is 18 more than last year.
Dozens signs banking deal with ClearBank
ClearBank to provide account numbers, sort codes, and Faster Payments access.
FCA calls on banks to reconsider branch closures during pandemic
HSBC announced the closure of 82 branches in January.
N26 mulls acquisition despite net losses tripling in 2019
N26’s failed UK expansion cost it a total of €26.9 million.
What’s in store for financial services in 2021?
A look at what the rest of this year might have in store for the world of financial services and fintech.
Has JP Morgan Chase learnt the lessons of Finn and Bó?
This isn’t its first challenger start-up foray.
VTB deputy chairman discloses exasperation over Yandex, Sber and Tinkoff competition
In 2020, VTB launched a total of 1,280 software development teams.
2021 fintech predictions
Staring into the crystal ball for signs of what we could see over the course of the year from the industry.
Curve signs PassFort to automate KYB processes
The card consolidation firm picked PassFort in the wake of its Series C round.
Founder-focused start-up Remagine nabs €20m in seed investment
Berlin-based firm aims to help “impactful” businesses with a range of products.
Berlin fintech Raisin patents Savings-as-a-Service tech in US
The fintech calls it “an interactive graphical user interface (GUI)”.
UK’s Crown Agents Bank bags Finablr’s Bhairav Trivedi as next CEO
Crown Agents Bank is a small, profitable, UK-regulated bank.
Brexit forces interest-rate derivatives trading shift to US
A permanent shift to New York would be particularly damaging for London.
N26 lands Zalando’s former financial chief as CFO
The former Zalando chief isn’t the only executive addition in recent months.
Wealthpilot raises €8m to fuel data aggregation push
German wealthtech has raised €14.9 million since 2017.
Lithuanian paytech kevin. raises €1.5m in seed funding
Lithuanian firm plans availability across Europe by Q4 2021.
Waqfinity launches in UK to provide “impact focused” Islamic finance
Former Rizq founder sets up new Islamic wallet app.
ECB launches climate change unit
The central bank has previously been criticised over its bond purchasing.
Mastercard plans to raise fees for UK purchases from EU
“This smacks of opportunism,” says Kevin Hollinrake, chair of Fair Business Banking.
UK fintech TrueLayer launches its payments API to rival cards
PayDirect claims just a 3.5% payment failure rate.
Crypto liquidity firm Wintermute raises $20m in Series B round
Firm plans to expand into derivatives and new markets in Asia.
Starling experienced “major outage” on its app last week
The temporary outage, though “short-lived”, was severe.
Contactless usage surges to 88.6% of in-store card transactions
The over-65s were most likely to embrace the technology for the first time.
