UK challenger bank Starling has teamed up with Moneybox to give its customers access to a suite of saving and investing tools. Starling says it is the first digital challenger to join the list of banks supported by the Moneybox app for its “round ups” feature. The service will be available to Starling customers at […]
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) are calling for input on their approach to applying the second EU Payment Services Directive (PSD2). PSD2 is required to be in place in the UK by 13 January 2018, and the nation’s HM Treasury will transpose PSD2 into UK legislation in the Payment […]
Banking Technology’s deputy editor, Antony Peyton, has been replaced by an artificial intelligence (AI) powered robot – paving the way for scintillating journalism free from acidic remarks and unfettered bouts of sarcasm. With the relentless rise of AI and robots, it was only a matter of time before a journalist would be thrown on the […]
We all love food and drink, and mobile service WoraPay has got in-sync and integrated Masterpass, the digital payment service from Mastercard. WoraPay’s service allows customers to buy food and drink, and pay in advance with their mobile. This means customers can order their morning coffee or tea (or whisky if you have a crappy […]
Oh UK fintech firms, you pretty things. The industry brings £6.6 billion to the nation’s economy, employs 61,000 people, and was showered with praise at the UK government’s inaugural International Fintech Conference in London. At yesterday’s event (12 April), Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond, like any smart politician, latched himself like a limpet onto […]
There is no smoke without fire. The “big smoke”, as London is colloquially known, has been creating a fire of innovation in the financial technology space for years, but there are other UK fintech centres in the Southwest; Cardiff; Manchester/Leeds; and Edinburgh/Glasgow that create their own heat.
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is calling for feedback on the potential for future development of distributed ledger technology (DLT) / blockchain in the markets it regulates. It says it is “particularly interested to explore where the balance of risk and opportunities may lie” for DLT and wants to boost innovation that advances it […]
Redwood Bank, a new UK-based SME challenger, has secured a banking licence following approval from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). As Banking Technology reported in October last year, Acorn Financial Partners (AFP) submitted a banking licence application. Now that it has authorisation, AFP is called Redwood Bank. Redwood says it […]
A secret recording that implicates the Bank of England (BoE) in Libor rigging has been uncovered by the current affairs programme, BBC Panorama. Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate) is used by banks to set prices of financial products. Last year, several ex-Barclays workers were found guilty of manipulating the Libor interest rate between 2005 and […]
UK-based payday loan company Wonga says there may have been illegal and unauthorised access to the personal data of some of its 270,000 customers. In a statement, the firm says information stolen may have included one or more of the following: name, e-mail address, home address, phone number, the last four digits of a card […]
A team of British politicians and fintech business leaders are in India as they seek to strengthen trade and investment between the two nations. At the 9th UK-India Economic and Financial Dialogue, held today (4 April) in Delhi, the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, and the Finance Minister of India, Arun Jaitley, discussed […]
Visa says it has become the first card network to give its UK commercial account holders a comprehensive view of their Amazon Business purchases. The new transaction data, available to Barclaycard, Citi, HSBC, and Lloyds Bank account holders, provides line-item details on all purchases for Amazon Business customers and integrates with reconciliation tools. Kevin Jenkins, […]
Not only is Lloyds cutting branches across the UK, it is now making them smaller in size. With the well-known rise in digital banking, the bank has plans to introduce micro-branches. This means no counters, and two members of staff with mobile tablets to help customers who dare walk into a branch. A spokesperson for […]
The “world’s first, regulated mortgage robo-adviser” Mortgage Gym will be launched in the UK in the coming months – offering online applications in 15 minutes. The service is regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), is free and combines robo- and live-broker advice. Mortgage Gym says its network allows brokers to acquire customers independently, […]
Credit card firms have come in for a kicking as the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has proposed new rules to help customers who are in persistent debt. This move follows the FCA’s study of the UK credit card market, which found “significant concerns” about the scale, extent and nature of problem credit card debt. […]
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published its near final rules on the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) II and encourages firms to submit applications for authorisation. These rules include changes to the trading of financial instruments – such as issues affecting trading venues, transparency of trading and algorithmic and high frequency trading. […]
Impersonation and deceptive double-dealing play their mischievous part in creating massive amounts of financial fraud in the UK. According to figures from Financial Fraud Action UK (FFA UK), losses across payment cards, remote banking and cheques totalled £768.8 million in 2016, an increase of 2% on the previous year. Katy Worobec, director of FFA UK, […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
AlgoMe, a London-based start-up offering career development and job placements in asset management, has launched its beta phase. The firm says it’s “rather like a dating app in that you get to determine if the match is right for you before your data is shared”. The web and mobile-based membership community is led by CEO […]
The UK’s Current Account Switch Service (CASS) says it meets one of the commitments set out in response to the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) final report into retail banking. As Banking Technology reported in January, the CMA accepted undertakings from the Bacs payment scheme, which owns and manages CASS, that commit it to delivering […]
VocaLink and BancTec, a part of SourceHOV, a provider of enterprise information management (EIM) and transaction processing solutions, will build the UK’s new image-based cheque clearing system. As Banking Technology reported this month, the Cheque and Credit Clearing Company (C&CCC) launched the industry-wide system to speed up processing for customers across the country. Paul Stoddart, […]
VocaLink’s Pay by Bank mobile payment app will soon be available to customers of HSBC and its subsidiary, First Direct. Pay by Bank app, created by VocaLink’s payment innovation team Zapp, enables people to make “digital debit” payments for goods and services via their banking app, with payment made directly from a current account. HSBC […]
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has chosen Cognizant for an overhaul of its core IT applications and quality assurance processes related to the agency’s market surveillance, supervisory analysis, reporting and risk management functions. This three-year agreement builds on the FCA’s ongoing relationship with Cognizant which began in 2011, when it was selected as one […]
San Francisco-based payments specialist Square has landed in the UK. This is the fifth market for Square, following the US, Canada, Australia and Japan.
It’s infographics time! This nifty infographics, created by Mastercard, outlines some interesting facts and figures about the new £1 coin, compared to the old one (introduced back in 1983).
Fintech zeitgeist! Every Monday, we might look back at last week; look ahead to this week; share a few thoughts (our own or others); or discuss anything that catches our eye. This week, Kate Bolton, head of PR and communications at Temenos, explains “Collaboration for Good” – the world’s first banking industry charity challenge. Collaboration, it […]
UK Export Finance, the country’s export credit agency and a government department, is looking to recruit a new head of IT.
The House of Lords Financial Exclusion Committee is calling for the UK Government, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and banks to give greater priority to tackling financial exclusion. In its new report, “Tackling financial exclusion: A country that works for everyone?”, the Lords want an end to the “scandal of the poorest being excluded from […]
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is closing 30 of its own branches and 128 of its subsidiary, NatWest, putting 470 people out of work. The bank says this decision is a result of the changing consumer behaviour, which has now shifted to digital banking.
A man walks into an ATM. It sounds like the beginning of a joke, and well it could be as Comic Relief, one of the UK’s biggest charity fundraisers, is getting help via interactive comedy on cash machines. ATM marketing firm i-design and Cardtronics UK are donating advertising space on cash machine screens to promote […]
The UK’s new financial trade association – created as a result of the merger between six domestic associations in the banking and payments space – has unveiled its name: UK Finance.
SmartStream has hired Richard Bowler as chief financial officer (CFO).
Despite numerous assurances to the contrary, as the UK lumbers towards Article 50 there are still concerns about the negative impact on the technology sector.
The Cheque and Credit Clearing Company (C&CCC) has launched an industry-wide image-based cheque clearing system to speed up processing for customers across the UK. The new system will go live with some banks and building societies from 30 October 2017. Then, at some stage in the second half of 2018, all of the UK’s banks […]
Russia-based Post Bank, a joint venture of VTB Group and Russian Post, has purchased 3,200 self-service cash recycling systems (plus software and services) from Diebold Nixdorf.
London-based fintech start-up Babb App says it is creating a bank based on a “permissioned” blockchain implementation of a distributed ledger using Ethereum smart contracts. The Babb banking platform will operate a decentralised information model to “minimise costs while maximising data fidelity and security” – i.e. the usual suspects. It expects to do a soft […]
The Bank of England’s (BoE) fintech accelerator has teamed with Ripple for a cross-border payments proof of concept (PoC). As Banking Technology reported last year, the accelerator was set up to harness innovation for central banking. In this latest development, the PoC with Ripple is intended to demonstrate the synchronised movement of two different currencies […]
UK-based challenger Jargon Bank has taken the fintech world to new levels of rapture with the move of its London office 100 metres down the road. As Banking Technology reported last year, the “game changer” bank launched offering “compelling and innovative” products, which raised more questions than answers. This was followed in February with an […]
UK challenger bank Tandem is not to receive any further investment from retail chain House of Fraser. House of Fraser invested £6 million in December, as part of a planned £35 million injection.
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has set out its plan for improved banking standards and financial services with its new “Senior Managers and Certification Regime”. In a speech “Culture in financial institutions: it’s everywhere and nowhere” delivered today (16 March) by Andrew Bailey, FCA chief executive, to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) Annual […]
