Now Santander lets you make payments using just your voice February 13, 2017 More proof that voice control is the future… Santander is now letting customers make payments just by asking their phone, along with several other new functions that work in a similar way to Apple's Siri or Amazon's Alexa Users of the bank's SmartBank app can use their voice to check their account balance, report a lost [...]
New hub to help grow UK’s £6 billion fintech sector February 13, 2017 | City Talk A new specialist fintech hub, backed by the UK and Scottish governments, will open its doors to entrepreneurs in May 2017. The hub will be the first of its kind in Scotland and will be based in Entrepreneurial Spark at Royal Bank of Scotland’s base in Edinburgh. It will launch one year on from the [...]
When fintechs and banks go speed dating February 8, 2017 While the seemingly age-old debate about whether fintech startups will kill banks still rages on, FinovateEurope demonstrates why that question is now largely redundant – things have moved on. The 80 startups on stage at the two day event in the heart of the City are pitching the banks, insurers and City institutions in attendance more [...]
UK fintech VC investment plunged by a third last year while China overtook the US February 7, 2017 The cash being ploughed into the UK's fintech startups dwindled by a third in 2016, falling under the $1bn mark due to the uncertainty surrounding Brexit – but the country grasped on to its position as the third most attractive country in the world for venture capital investors in the sector.. Funding also fell for US fintech startups in similarly tumultuous political [...]
Why the banking sector needs to get serious about putting the fun into finance February 3, 2017 It’s no laughing matter: my generation – millennials – has fallen out of love with banks. It’s a familiar narrative: banks don’t understand us, the relationship’s not going anywhere, we’d rather be on social media. In fact, we’d rather bank via social media which is why smart banks are cosying up to platforms like Facebook. [...]
An early investor in UK fintech unicorn Transferwise has reduced its stake January 31, 2017 An early backer of one of the UK's most successful fintech startups has sold a minority stake in the unicorn-valued firm in a private secondary share trading deal. Seedcamp, which has also invested in eMoov and BorrowyDoggy, last year sold of some of its shares in Transferwise, the money transfer startup with a valuation of more [...]
Why could digital tech reach over $2.7 trillion by 2020? January 30, 2017 | City Talk Whether it’s big data, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud storage or cyber security, the effects of digital technology development are all around us. Recognised as the third industrial revolution, we are experiencing one of the most transformative periods in history. Digital – transforming our industrial society In 2001, a group of software developers met at the [...]
Mark Carney’s fintech critique should be a wake-up call for a sector used to plaudits January 27, 2017 The fintech sector is so used to being publicly lauded that this week’s comments by the governor of the Bank of England will have come as a shock. Despite claiming London as the fintech centre of Europe and exulting its potential, Mark Carney made clear fintech’s rise could disrupt the established financial sector – raising [...]
Forget Berlin, Dublin and Paris – Asia’s a bigger rival to London fintech regardless of Brexit January 26, 2017 As Germany, France and Ireland attempt to woo London's fintech firms to their respective capital cities after the Brexit vote, one of the UK's top VCs has warned the industry should be more concerned with the rise of Asia as a fintech powerhouse rather than other European cities. In the long-term, the continent's prominence in financial technology is likely [...]
Is blockchain a “new operating system for the planet”? Barclays vice chairman Jeremy Wilson thinks so January 25, 2017 Blockchain has the potential to become “a new operating system for the planet” in a generation’s time, while mainstream commercial use is likely to happen within the next decade, one of Barclays’ top executives believes. “I don’t think I’ve heard it mentioned as anything other than a significant opportunity,” said its corporate banking vice-chairman Jeremy Wilson. [...]