Alternative lending’s leading founders and chief executives give their predictions for the sector in 2017 January 12, 2017 The road was slightly bumpy for alternative lenders last year. Authorisations for the Innovative Finance Isa were delayed, there was further Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) probing, disappointing results hounded a good handful of the UK’s largest platforms and Goldman Sachs made its foray into the market with in-house platform Marcus. But provided the regulator continues [...]
Forget Brexit: London and Belgium are collaborating on fintech January 11, 2017 London's world-leading fintech sector is forging ahead despite Brexit with closer ties to counterparts in Belgium, the heart of European government. Belgium's finance minister Johan Van Overtveldt and a delegation of fintech experts are in London to build closer ties with the city and launch a new platform for fostering collaboration between startups and finance firms. "Brexit [...]
Equity crowdfunding’s leading founders predict what’s in store for the sector in 2017 January 5, 2017 Equity crowdfunding will look even more grown up by Christmas 2017. More regulation is coming to the sector: the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has said it’ll consult this year on new rules, in a bid to improve protection for retail investors and increase transparency around financial promotions. Read more: The FCA is cracking down on [...]
“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 [...]