“Alexa, what’s an annuity?” Insurance company Aviva is using Amazon Echo January 4, 2017 "Alexa, what's an annuity?" Now your Amazon Echo can tell you the answer to burning questions about insurance and guide you through the unfamiliar jargon of the industry. The Insurance giant Aviva has developed a so-called skill (like an app for smartphones) for the voice activated speaker which proved a big hit for Amazon over Christmas. Read more: [...]
Mastercard’s £700m Vocalink deal raises competition concerns with watchdog January 4, 2017 Mastercard's £700m deal for Vocalink has raised concerns over competition in the payments infrastructure business with the market watchdog. Owned by a collective of 18 banks, including Barclays, Santander, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC, Vocalink provides the infrastructure for many payments in Britain such as Bacs and the Faster Payments Service as well as the Link ATM network. Concerns have [...]
Digital challenger bank Monese lands $10m January 3, 2017 One of the UK's up-and-coming digital challenger banks has landed a new round of funding from investors to expand to Europe. Monese has raised $10m (£8.2m) in series A funding from Anthemis Exponential Ventures, Korea Investment Partners and STE Capital. It follows on from a $1.8m in the summer of 2015 from Seedcamp, SmartCap along with entrepreneur and [...]
Bitcoin market cap smashes through $14bn barrier: Equivalent to the average market cap of a FTSE 100 firm December 22, 2016 Bitcoin prices today leapt by five per cent, breaking records for the overall value of the digital currency in existence and taking its price to the highest level for three years. Around 12.5 new Bitcoins come into circulation every 10 minutes. And this meant today the today market capitalisation of bitcoins broke through the $14bn [...]
Record levels of IT investment in 2017? You can bank on it, says report December 19, 2016 The banking sector will up its IT spend to an all-time high in 2017 as the gap between tech-savvy and Luddite lenders widens, according to a report released today. Embracing data and open banking are top priorities for banks the report by consultants Temenos and Capgemini revealed. The focus on technology comes a week after it was [...]
Habito founder Daniel Hegarty talks fintech mortgages, bigamy and working above a kebab shop December 19, 2016 Many people have a career change. Before venturing into fintech, Daniel Hegarty, founder of digital mortgage broker Habito, was a professional musician, composing for TV and film and touring internationally. In 2007, he joined a few people trying to work out how to do loans on the internet in real time, in a pre-launch company [...]
Ex-Barclays boss Antony Jenkins is joining bitcoin wallet startup Blockchain December 13, 2016 The former boss of Barclays, Antony Jenkins, is getting deeper into the world of fintech, joining the board of the largest bitcoin wallet startup in the world, Blockchain. “Blockchain technology has the potential to reinvent the way we use money and contribute to a finance system that’s high quality, low cost, secure, fair and transparent,” said [...]
UK investors flock to fintech firm BullionVault as gold prices soar December 12, 2016 London fintech group BullionVault attracted a 90 per cent increase in UK gold investors this year and saw annual trading volumes increase by more than a quarter. Market volatility and uncertainty surrounding the EU referendum in June and ahead of the US election in November led gold and silver prices to soar, contributing to a trading [...]
Blockchain chief executive Peter Smith talks smart contracts, homelessness and starting the world’s largest bitcoin wallet December 12, 2016 When I speak to Peter Smith, he is mid-juggling three events in as many days: a board meeting, moving his entire London team to new offices, and the office Christmas party. “We haven’t even had the office opening yet, but it’s all been fine,” he reflects. The first of these requires a day trip to [...]
The UK City watchdog’s so good at fintech it’s going to teach Hong Kong December 7, 2016 The UK's forward thinking City regulator is exporting its fintech expertise, partnering with authorities in Hong Kong to foster innovation in finance. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) to share its knowledge and promote innovation between the two countries. It's the latest example of the UK collaborating with other [...]