Video: Top fintech stories this week – 31 January 2020
FinTech Futures’ weekly news round-up.
UK
What Brexit Day means for the future of fintech
A collection of thoughts across the industry on what Brexit day means for them.
How SalaryFits is connecting banks with the unbanked
FinTech Futures speaks to its CEO Délber Lage about its platform and future plans.
Griffin raises £3m to take aim at banks’ legacy tech
The start-up will offer a fully-regulated banking platform for fintechs.
Industry undecided on UK’s fintech funding success
The industry is undecided over roughly $1 billion dollars.
EXCLUSIVE: Drugs, defecation, and graffiti at HMRC’s Manchester headquarters
Government body aims to clamp down on “reprehensible” behaviour.
UK fintech Freetrade hit by claims of toxic workplace culture
Former staff said there was no HR person or office manager to voice concerns with.
Lloyds group to close 56 more UK branches this year
Staff numbers may be cut by “under 80” in affected branches.
Travelex puts money transfer systems online after cyberattack
A majority of the firm’s services remain down.
UK court orders Bitfinex to freeze $860,000 in bitcoin
Chainalysis traced the funds to a ransomware payment through Bitfinex’s platform.
UK challenger Monzo in talks with SoftBank for £100m fundraising
Monzo’s co-founder met up with the Japanese investor in Mayfair this month.
Barclays invests in digital receipts start-up Flux
Barclays already uses Flux’s technology on its beta programme Launchpad.
FCA calls UK’s current overdraft market “dysfunctional”
The regulator is asking banks to explain their 39.99% rates.
UK’s PSR seeks input on New Payments Architecture competition issues
Regulator calls for comment ahead of 2021 launch.
Tally launches 2.0 version of UK Faster Payments-linked app
Tally is not a cryptocurrency, because it’s linked to a tangible asset.
Nucleus Commercial Finance gains £25m funding line from Paragon Bank
SME lender plans to boost support for customers.
How Canadian start-up Cinchy is transforming data for banks
Exclusive interview with Cinchy’s CEO. “Think of it as the end of fragmentation.”
The rise of investment apps
There’s an appetite to save and invest despite low interest rates across Europe, Australia and the US.
API provider Currencycloud raises $80m in Series E funding
The round was co-led by Visa and SAP’s venture arm Sapphire.
UK’s Payzone rebrands to Takepayments
The fintech is also set to expand its headcount this year.
FCA appoints Christopher Woolard as interim chief
Former head of strategy takes over from BoE-bound Andrew Bailey.
Bank of England seeks public cloud technology partner
Regulator looking into benefits of SaaS and PaaS.
Finnish SME banking service Holvi launches in UK
The challenger already has 200,000 customers largely in Finland and Germany.
Greensill pledges to help SME suppliers after ombudsman probes
The lender says it needs to “think about the way that [its] capital is being delivered”.
Video: Top fintech stories this week – 24 January 2020
FinTech Future’s weekly news round-up.
Liberis raises £32m to boost growth plans
The funding for the SME finance provider was led by investment firm FTV Capital.
Barclays signs tech partnership with invoice insurance firm Nimbla
UK bank to offer Nimbla technology to one million SME customers.
Digital broker Stake releases UK beta app ahead of February launch
The app plans to expand across Europe “in the coming months”.
WorldRemit ties up cross-border remittance partnership with Alipay
London-based firm gives users green light to sent money to Alipay wallets.
Monzo bank accused of “freezing accounts for no apparent reason”
A private Facebook group, “Monzo stole our money”, has grown to 1,080 members.
Vodafone leaves Facebook’s Libra to focus on M-Pesa
M-Pesa is the telco’s digital payment service.
Gig economy fintech SteadyPay raises £2.9m to tackle income volatility
Roughly a seventh of the 32.54 million employed in the UK are gig economy workers.
Cloud: Does it deserve a bad rap from the Treasury?
The Treasury Committee singles out the cloud as a “source of systemic risk”.
RBS sees flurry of executives leave including BÓ’s CEO
The bank sees a major reshuffle under new chief Alison Rose.
Mortgage broker Trussle raises £7.5m
Fresh funding brings total investment in Trussle to £26.5m.
Central banks in Europe, Japan and Canada assess potential digital currencies
Central banks in Canada, the UK, Japan, Switzerland, and Sweden are teaming up.
UK challenger Vive gets restricted licence to help bad credit scorers
Vive aims to fully launch in the second quarter of 2020.
Health Insurance & Protection 2019/20 Report: Movers, Shakers & Opportunity Creators
Exclusive research, industry insight, opinion and predictions – free download available now.
Islamic banking app Niyah launches in UK
The challenger says the UK’s Muslim community has been “financially isolated”.
FCA admits it does not track frequency of funds that block investor withdrawals
The UK financial watchdog has been severely criticised for its lack of oversight of several funds.
