Sync. signs deal with Railsbank to power premium accounts
The smart banking app is looking to expand following a 2020 launch.
UK
Mastercard nabs UK market share with NatWest debit deal
Card issuer will now account for one in three debit cards in the UK.
HMRC awards Ecospend “largest” open banking contract valued at £3m
“Today marks a big step forward for adoption,” says OBIE.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Waqfinity launches in UK to provide “impact focused” Islamic finance
Former Rizq founder sets up new Islamic wallet app.
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.
Fintech funding deals globally 18-24 January 2021
Featuring PPRO, iSTOX, Indy, Mercado Bitcoin, and Brigit.
DNA Payments Group acquires Active Merchant Services
The deal brings DNA’s customer base up to around 30,000 merchants.
Female-led tax reporting fintech KAWC takes tech into own hands
“We approached male investors, but they were so condescending,” says CEO.
Tom Blomfield exits Monzo and opens up about mental health
“COVID-19 just exacerbated things,” says Blomfield.
Spectrum Equity invests $51m in OTC firm Quantile Technologies
Spectrum’s MD joins the Quantile board of directors.
VC investment for UK’s female fintech founders up 6% in 2020
Female-led fintechs entered COVID-19 with the longest funding runway of the sector.
Santander hires HSBC’s Rakshit Kapoor as new chief data officer
Kapoor joins after three years at the major international bank.
The five p’s of banking
Banks have relied on the “five p’s” – people, physical cash, premises, processes and paper.
FinTech Futures Jobs: new year, new job – five tech companies that are hiring now
Featuring CGI, Cleo AI, Freetrade, Market Finance, and Monzo.
Under the hood of London payments platform Currencycloud
Currencycloud talks tech, structure, product development and bank relationships.
PPRO reaches $1bn valuation on back of $180m venture raise
Payments infrastructure firm plans “global expansion” with new cash.
HSBC closes 82 branches as in-person banking continues to decline
The bank says no jobs will be cut in the closures.
What the Fintech? | S.2 Episode 1 | Innovation in commercial lending
Innovation in commercial lending with special guest, Dean Snyder, EVP at AFS.
Prospective UK challenger Perenna lands $10m ahead of Q3 launch
The fintech lodged its banking licence in the last quarter of 2020.
