Visa is no longer a pleaser as TSB will issue Mastercard debit cards to all its current account customers in 2018 as part of a seven-year agreement. The bank says it will continue to issue Mastercard credit cards over the same term. The agreement means the two organisations “will partner to offer additional payment solutions”. […]
The UK’s Co-operative Bank’s life may not be over just yet as it reveals it is in advanced discussions with existing investors over a rescue package. As reported in February, the bank was put up for sale – with the minority investor Co-op Group saying it is “supportive of the plan to find the bank […]
HSBC has launched a £10 billion lending fund for SMEs in the UK as it looks to tap into this lively market. The bank says it continues to be open to lending, having approved 91% of small business lending applications in the last year. Ian Stuart, UK CEO, HSBC, says: “We want to put SMEs […]
Mobile-only bank Monese has unveiled direct debit functionality for its customers – a move designed to offer services closer to that of a traditional high street bank account. Alongside this, it has also gained access to Faster Payments, so customers can send funds to accounts outside or within the UK with a “quicker transfer”. In […]
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has unveiled the second wave of firms that have made it into its regulatory sandbox. As reported in 2015, the sandbox allows businesses to test out new products and services without “incurring the normal regulatory consequences”. The move is part of the FCA’s Project Innovate, which aims to boost […]
Payments services provider Circle is offering its customers in the US, UK and Europe the ability to send and receive money across borders with no fees and no mark-up on foreign exchange (FX) rates. The firm says it is “just like sending email or sharing photos” – meaning it’s “free and instant”. There will be […]
If security is too big a question for us to answer, maybe it’s time to hand the responsibility over to the machines, reports Telecoms.com (Banking Technology‘s sister publication). During a panel at “AI and Machine Learning World”, part of tech event TechXLR8 in London, artificial intelligence (AI) was discussed. What might seem quite a controversial […]
An online survey carried out amongst our readers in the run up to the UK’s first Common Reporting Standard (CRS) submission has found respondents largely optimistic about how their first transmittal would go; were appreciative of the support given to them by their IT departments and thought that HMRC and OECD had done a good job in communicating with them. Their primary concerns were their ability to pull data from their internal systems and keeping up with compliance.
Our tour of the UK fintech scene concludes in this third instalment of the report. We started from the south of the country, then travelled west and are now travelling through the northern England and Scotland.
The career of an elderly billionaire lies in tatters after he decided that a meeting to address sexism in the fintech industry was the right time to wolf whistle at the crowd and boast about his sexual exploits. David Blooperman, CEO and founder of identity and internet of things service provider ID-IOT, was invited to […]
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, Antony Peyton, Banking Technology’s deputy editor, with the help of many “expert comments” (bless you for those), briefly mulls over the aftermath […]
In today’s seemingly financially connected world, where we can send money to one another via our smartphones, and manage our spending habits via apps, it’s pretty hard to believe that financial exclusion is still a reality in the UK. Yet, a shocking 1.7 million adults in the UK still don’t have access to financial services.
Catch up on Banking Technology’s top five fintech stories of the week – all in one place!
San-Francisco based RocketSpace, with the support of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and NatWest, has opened its campus in London for fintech and tech start-ups. Housed in NatWest’s (a subsidiary of RBS) Regents House in London, the campus is the “first of its kind” in the capital and RocketSpace’s only international location. The campus occupies […]
London-based Bank of Lambeth is getting ready to enter the UK’s highly competitive challenger bank arena. The community bank is the brainchild of Duncan Law at Transition Town Brixton. The latter is an initiative that looks to new ways of dealing with climate change, and energy and financial issues. In a report in the Brixton […]
After 18 months of development, UK-based online saving and investing service Moola has launched. The firm says there are 5.4 million “mass affluent people in the UK who have no access to financial advice, but disposable income and a desire to save and invest”. It wants to tap into that market by doing the “hard […]
The UK’s Nationwide Building Society has opted for release management software from cloud technology start-up Cutover. The deal means London-based Cutover will be the “first completely cloud-based tool with no footprint within Nationwide’s infrastructure”. Cutover’s software lets teams plan, rehearse and execute events. It also offers real-time status visualisation and communications across SMS, voice and […]
The Association of British Credit Unions (Abcul) says it is making progress with its Model Credit Union initiative, to modernise the tech and operations of its members. Three credit unions are now live with new core and mobile banking software.
It’s not only the end of the working week but the end of the line for Edinburgh-based payments firm Helixion. The company has gone into liquidation and intellectual property (IP) firm Metis Partners has been appointed to support the marketing and sale of its assets. On Metis’ website, it says the deadline for offers has […]
The money’s rolling in for fintech – as this round-up follows hot on the heels from 30 May. This latest report features Zopa, RateSetter and Niyogin Fintech. The plans of peer-to-peer (P2P) lender Zopa to launch a new digital-only bank in the UK are going well as it has completed a £32 million funding round […]
US payments firm Flywire has acquired PACE Invoice, a multi-currency invoicing platform provider based in London. International business law firm Addleshaw Goddard advised PACE on this transaction. With the acquisition, Flywire adds international invoicing to its cross-border payments and receivables services, enabling its business, education and healthcare clients to “more easily link invoices to cross-border […]
Article 50, triggered just nine months after Brexit was officially announced, will give the UK exactly two years to strike a deal with the EU concerning its departure from the economic and trading bloc. What will be the impact of the referendum on the square mile? Will it cease to be the major financial hub this side of the Atlantic?
With an intended jolt and volt of energy, Yolt, a new money platform backed by ING, has launched its open beta for iOS and Android in the UK. The app has been tested in closed beta since October last year, and is now ready to invite more people to the platform. Yolt enables users to […]
The latest edition of our flagship magazine – Banking Technology – is out now, packed with news, analysis and insights, case studies, research and expert commentary.
Rapid growth in the use of contactless cards means cash will be overtaken as Britain’s most frequently used payment method by the end of 2018, according to trade association Payments UK (soon to become UK Finance). Despite this surge, its latest forecast still does not herald the demise of cash – even in ten years’ […]
Should you hear a vehicle trundling down your litter-strewn UK street don’t all rush out assuming it’s an ice cream van. Calm yourself and your desires for a gigantic calorie-drenched concoction, and instead prepare for Gemalto’s GDPR Clinic. Before you ask WTF? (i.e. what the fintech) – this is payments firm Gemalto and its double […]
Form3, a cloud-based fintech firm launched last year, has partnered with payments validation company Apply Financial. The deal enhances Form3’s Payments-as-a-Service platform with “automation services to validate, enrich, and fix single and bulk payments”, Form3 says.
UK digital bank CivilisedBank has received its banking licence from the Bank of England, paving the way for it to build its infrastructure and launch to customers in early 2018. As Banking Technology reported in June last year, the bank submitted its banking licence application and had planned to open for business in early 2017. […]
A UK bank has been left with its tail between its legs after its “state-of-the-art and highly secure” voice biometric system was bypassed by a cat. “Game changer” Jargon Bank, which launched last year (and updated its app and moved office), is reeling from the feline fraudster and the media wants answers. And boy does […]
Citi has revealed the three winners from its Tech for Integrity Challenge (T4I) Demo Day in Dublin – all part of its plan to promote integrity, accountability and transparency in the public sector and beyond. Fintech developers from eight countries presented their working prototypes; and the “award recipients” from the Demo Day included: T4I Award […]
HSBC has been left red-faced after a BBC reporter and his non-identical twin tricked its voice ID authentication service. The BBC says its “Click” (a weekly TV show) reporter Dan Simmons created an HSBC account and signed up to the bank’s service. HSBC states that the system is secure because each person’s voice is “unique”. […]
Samsung Pay has officially launched in the UK, continuing the evolution of the digital economy, but does this technology have the potential to disrupt the global pecking order?
Samsung Pay has arrived in the UK with Visa keen to reveal that its account holders can use their compatible Samsung smartphones for purchases worldwide. In terms of Visa, the service is available to its cardholders who bank with MBNA, Nationwide and Santander. Samsung adds that its app can be used with HSBC (Mastercard and […]
Virgin Money has withdrawn from a potential takeover of the UK’s Co-op Bank as the struggling lender prioritises talks with a group of hedge funds about a financial restructuring, according to Sky News. As Banking Technology reported in February, the Co-op Bank was put up for sale – with the minority investor Co-op Group saying […]
We look at UK fintech firms working outside of the London “bubble”, examining where they are based and why; their history; target markets; clients; tech specialisations, concerns and future plans.
UK challenger bank Tandem is axing 30 jobs after its £29 million in funding fell through earlier this year. A source has told Business Insider that Tandem has “reduced its staffing levels from around 110 to close to 80. The headcount reduction includes both redundancies and contractors who have not been renewed”. As Banking Technology […]
The technology incubation activities of Japanese conglomerate Softbank show no sign of slowing after it pumped $502 million into UK cloud VR start-up Improbable, reports Telecoms.com (Banking Technology‘s sister publication). Virtual reality is fast becoming more than just a futuristic gimmick, with the likes of Facebook perceiving it as a new frontier of human interaction. […]
Moneycorp in the UK has signed an agreement to acquire US-based payments firm Commonwealth Foreign Exchange (Commonwealth FX). The acquisition, subject to regulatory licensing approvals, will allow Moneycorp to “extend the geographical reach of its payments platform”. Nick Haslehurst, chief financial and operating officer at Moneycorp, says it sees “huge potential in the US among […]
A UK judge has taken a swipe at contactless card payments because they make life too easy for criminals. According to the BBC, Exeter Crown Court recorder David Bartlett says it is “quite ludicrous that the banks have allowed this to happen”, after hearing how a card was used by a thief to buy goods […]
