Why collaboration, not competition, will digitalise banking January 21, 2019 Across every sector, businesses are looking to technology to reduce costs and improve their products and services. But most big financial services firms simply aren’t set up to create, drive, and wield new tech innovation – certainly not to the degree that a startup can. Big companies are hampered by legacy IT systems and complex [...]
London fintech Marketinvoice lands £56m in funding from Barclays and Santander January 21, 2019 London-based fintech business lender Marketinvoice has today closed a £56m round made up of equity and debt funding, led by Barclays and Santander's venture arm Innoventures. The series B-stage equity funding, which amounted to £26m, also received significant participation from European venture capital firm Northzone, which has previously backed the likes of Spotify, Trustpilot and fellow fintech lender Zopa. [...]
Hacking Wall Street: Are tech unicorns about to disrupt stock market flotations? January 21, 2019 Tech companies have changed the way we chat, bank, travel and date. Are they about to disrupt capital markets too? “In [Silicon] Valley there’s always been that mentality: how do we hack Wall Street?” says Rob Kniaz, a founder of tech-focused venture capital firm Hoxton Ventures. Two weeks ago reports broke that Slack, the workplace [...]
Case alleging Libor-rigging launched against raft of major banks January 20, 2019 A string of major banks have been accused of rigging the Libor benchmark again, five years on from a major scandal. A class action has been filed in the US against banks such as the Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC, UBS, Bank of America, Citi and Deutsche Bank. The action, which [...]
Prominent MP slams City watchdog over lack of action on allegations of interest swap mis-selling January 20, 2019 A prominent MP has blasted the head of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Andrew Bailey over the watchdog’s response to alleged mis-selling by Clydesdale Bank. Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake, head of the all party parliamentary group on fair business banking, said the FCA had failed to “press the case for justice and compensation” for thousands [...]
CYBG could face shareholder unrest over executive pay following Virgin Money deal January 20, 2019 Virgin Money’s new owner CYBG could face an investor backlash after a respected shareholder advisory group slammed its executive pay plans which it said are “not supported by compelling rationale”. The report by advisory group ISS said that following the acquisition of Virgin Money for £1.7bn last year, the company plans to nearly double variable [...]
Lloyds Bank suffers IT outage as customers struggle to send and receive money January 18, 2019 Thousands of Lloyds Bank customers were unable to make payments this afternoon after the bank experienced an IT outage. Customers complained of difficulties transferring money from their accounts due to issues related to the lender's Faster Payments system, which allows customers to send and receive payments by internet or phone. "We are aware that some customers [...]
Royal Bank of Scotland wants to speed up privatisation by buying back government shares January 18, 2019 The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) wants to buy back shares from the government in a bid to speed up the company's privatisation. The bank has proposed the move by tabling a special resolution that will seek permission to make off-market share purchases from the treasury. It will allow the lender, which is currently 62 [...]
Lloyds prepares for Brexit with Berlin banking licence January 18, 2019 Lloyds Banking Group has secured a banking license for its Berlin subsidiary as the Brexit deadline date approaches. The lender has previously run the office on a standard passporting licence, however all British banks with customers in the EU could lose the licence after March 29 therefore Lloyds is seeking further regulatory approval, Reuters reported. [...]
We can’t let financial inclusion become just another buzzword January 18, 2019 Over the last decade, the world has made significant progress towards universal financial inclusion. Today, traditionally underserved individuals have greater access to financial products than ever before. And with mobile networks reaching more than 90 per cent of the population in developing nations, digital payments – a key on-ramp to financial inclusion – are becoming [...]