Access to finance is key to getting SMEs exporting February 27, 2017 Brexit may have been delayed but one thing that isn’t slowing down is UK exports. The latest industrial trends survey published by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) this month revealed that export orders remain above the long-run average. But while big businesses are reaping the benefits of exporting, small and medium-sized firms are being [...]
Philip Hammond enlists Mark Carney and Simon Kirby for first UK FinTech conference February 26, 2017 The government will host its first ever International FinTech conference as part of FinTech Week 2017, chancellor Philip Hammond announced today. City minister Simon Kirby and Bank of England governor Mark Carney will join the chancellor at the conference, which will feature panels and workshops as well as opportunities for UK FinTech firms to pitch [...]
Regulators welcome fintech but aren’t sure what to do with it February 23, 2017 | City Talk Regulators have a 'wait and see' attitude about regulating fintech. Two governmental organisations recently released reports on regulatory approaches to fintech advances, including blockchain. First, the US Federal Reserve Board released its report on distributed ledger technology (i.e., blockchain) in payments, clearing, and settlement. Following that release, the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) — a joint [...]
How Blockchain technology will change the financial services industry February 20, 2017 | City Talk Blockchain technology has been hailed as a potential “second generation of the Internet.” A whole vocabulary has sprung up around it, with an emphasis on key words like distributed ledger, cryptography, and trust. But what is blockchain, exactly? It’s basically a database where recorded transactions are copied to a participating network of computers. Since the [...]
It’s time to turn to fintech to solve the late payment problem February 17, 2017 The UK is a nation built on small businesses, with SMEs accounting for a staggering 99 per cent of all businesses in the private sector. While many of these businesses thrive, a significant number suffer as a result of late payment, impacting their ability to invest and ultimately grow. Late payment is a chronic problem for [...]
Meet Prodigy Finance: The fintech firm that went global on day one February 14, 2017 With Trump in the White House and a hard Brexit on the horizon, protectionism is back on the menu. Many entrepreneurs are concerned about the implications for the free movement of goods, capital and people. But at a recent Leap 100 breakfast, chief executive and co-founder of Prodigy Finance, Cameron Stevens, sounded a note of [...]
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 [...]