Banking bazooka? CMA report great for fintech, costly for banks August 9, 2016 The competition watchdog has today handed fintech startups a bazooka for their mission of disrupting banks, with new rules for making data more open to improve customer choice. The so-called big four – HSBC, Lloyds, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland – and other smaller high street banks will have to work together to create standards for sharing [...]
Fintech founders choose their favourite business books August 8, 2016 Stuck for what to read this summer and want to use the time improving your business acumen? City A.M. has asked five of London’s leading fintech founders what they’d recommend. Hiroki Takeuchi, co-founder of GoCardless, the online direct debit provider Five dysfunctions of teams, by Patrick Lencioni I love books that introduce me to [...]
Nine up-and-coming fintech startups to watch (and Lloyds thinks so too) August 2, 2016 A handful of startups from around the world are hoping to disrupt the big banks with new innovations after being chosen as ones to watch in the world of fintech by one of London's top accelerators and top global businesses. Startupbootcamp's fintech programme, backed by the likes of Lloyds and PwC, have chosen nine new up-and-coming early stage fintech [...]
Thomson Reuters is the latest to join this major blockchain consortium August 2, 2016 Thomson Reuters is the latest financial institution to join one of the major consortiums working on blockchain technology, joining several of the world's biggest banks. The global firm is joining R3, the group which is spearheading efforts to standardise blockchain technology and now counts more than 40 members, including Barclays, HSBC and Goldman Sachs. Read more: The UK [...]
The UK government now has its first official blockchain provider for public services August 1, 2016 Every single public sector organisation across the UK will be able to use blockchain technology for the first time after the government rubber-stamped fintech startup Credits as one of its approved suppliers in a major step forward for the potentially revolutionary technology. It's the first time a company working with blockchain's distributed ledger technology (DLT) has been given the thumbs up, and [...]
China’s Ant Financial is testing out blockchain technology July 31, 2016 Ant Financial, the Chinese fintech giant spun off from Alibaba, is testing out blockchain technology for the first time to build a more transparent process for donating money. The group's charity platform, Ant Love, will use blockchain technology to track donations to one project being funded via the site. “We are trying to bring small and [...]
French bank BPCE acquires hot fintech challenger Fidor July 28, 2016 France’s fourth largest bank has gobbled up a fintech startup that specialises in digital banking. BPCE has acquired German challenger Fidor to push forward its digital strategy across Europe. Fidor, named one of Europe’s hottest fintech companies, currently operates in several countries including the UK. Founded in 2009 and with investment from Anthemis Group among others, BPCE has agreed [...]
Pensions giant L&G invests more than £3m in London auto enrolment fintech firm Smart Pension July 28, 2016 Is auto enrolment London's next technology cash cow? L&G seems to think so: it's invested more than £3m in London pensions firm Smart Pension – which is barely a year old. Although it hasn't disclosed exactly how much it spent, City A.M. understands the figure was higher than Smart Pension's last funding round, earlier this year, in which it [...]
Italian challenger bank FinecoBank set to enter UK market July 27, 2016 An Italian bank is set to enter the UK this autumn as another contender in the challenger banks’ battle against the Big Four. FinecoBank launched in 1999 as a subsidiary of UniCredit Group and has grown rapidly to have 1.1m Italian customers. It’s disrupting the banking industry by being the only company in Europe to combine [...]
Ex-William Hill online boss Andrew Lee joins money transfer firm WorldRemit July 26, 2016 The former managing director of William Hill Online has joined money transfer service and London-based startup WorldRemit. Andrew Lee spent four years at William Hill, during which time he led the firm's online growth. Before joining the gambling group, he worked at Jefferies International, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Dresdner Kleinwort, among other places. Lee, who announced [...]