A quick guide to the key UK payment rails September 17, 2024 | Sponsored Liz Carroll, Senior Product Manager, Financial Marketplaces at Finastra There are a range of payment rails available in the UK; some widely applicable while others work better for companies operating in certain circumstances. But what is a payment rail? Payment rails refer to the underlying infrastructure and systems that facilitate the movement of money between [...]
State pension set to rise by £460 next year amid winter fuel debate September 10, 2024 This would mean that the state pension rises to around £11,962 next year from £11,502, an increase of almost £9 per week.
Driving greater transparency and efficiency in cross-border payments August 14, 2024 | Sponsored Tim Forster, Strategic Partner Manager, Financial Messaging at Finastra Whether consumers, small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) or corporate entities, customers want access to speedy and transparent cross-border transactions from their bank. However, the process can often be extremely lengthy, costly and opaque, leading many to turn to more agile fintech providers. For example, many consumers [...]
Building a Secure Bacs Payments Process with the Right Partner August 14, 2024 | Sponsored In the second of this two-part series, learn how the stability of electronic payments can be made simpler with enhanced security protocols and robust, agile architecture By Liz Carroll, Senior Product Manager, Financial Marketplaces at Finastra Prioritising resilience in the payments process is not just a matter of convenience, but a necessity for maintaining the [...]
Have smartcards had their day? Exploring alternatives for secure Bacs payments August 14, 2024 | Sponsored Liz Carroll, Senior Product Manager, Financial Marketplaces at Finastra Smartcards, embedded with integrated chips to store digital certificate data, are widely used in corporate payments for their security, convenience, and efficiency. The UK’s Bacs payment system has used smartcards to facilitate corporate access since the switch to Bacstel-IP in 2003. While smartcards offer great security, [...]
Open banking leads the way in reducing Bacs risk July 22, 2024 | Sponsored By Liz Carroll, Senior Product Manager, Financial Marketplaces at Finastra The Bacs scheme is experiencing ongoing growth. More than 1.7 billion Bacs payments were made during Q4 2023 with the corresponding value amounting to £1,418 billion. Direct Debits accounted for 71% of the volume and 26% of the value. Direct Debit gives payers a hands-off [...]
Pensioners the ‘biggest winners’ from Tory policies since 2010, research shows June 26, 2024 Pensioners have been the big winners of Tory tax and benefit policies since 2010, according to new research from the Resolution Foundation.
General Election 2024: Why Sunak’s ‘triple lock plus’ pledge is not all as it seems May 28, 2024 Sunak's announcement will guarantee that pensioners’ personal allowance will always be higher than the level of the new state pension.
Lift auto-enrolment pension contribution to 12 per cent for £10bn boost, report argues April 24, 2024 Auto pension enrolment was one of the key policy wins of the coalition era and essentially made employees automatically pay into their pension pots.
Will UK mortgage rates rise even more if US inflation stays hot? April 13, 2024 London markets have been spooked by worse-than-expected economic data across the pond that has raised uncertainty over when central banks will start lowering interest rates. So what does this mean for mortgages?