RBS invests in digital banking startup to rival Monzo and Starling January 7, 2019 The Royal Bank of Scotland has invested in digital current account aimed at students and young people that has set out to rival challenger banks Monzo and Starling. The £2m investment in fintech startup Loot was made through Natwest’s digital-only retail bank Bo, which is due to launch this year, and takes its total shareholding to 25 per [...]
‘Non-sexy’ is the new cool: UK fintech predictions for 2019 December 13, 2018 Despite the continued uncertainties of Brexit, 2018 was another year for the UK’s fintech sector. Record levels of investment poured into the community, with $16bn secured in the first six months of 2018, exceeding the value of investment in US fintech by almost $2bn. In addition, progressive regulation and a thriving financial services sector attracted [...]
DEBATE: Do banks need to become fintechs in order to survive? December 10, 2018 Do banks need to become fintechs in order to survive? YES, says Lu Zurawski, consumer payments practice lead at ACI Worldwide. Big banks definitely need to find ways to become more like fintechs, which represent a new way of engaging with customers who increasingly expect modern, mobile-first and always-available services. These tech-savvy firms focus on customer-centric, informative [...]
Monzo ‘absolutely not’ the next Wonga, says founder amid high-cost loan speculation December 5, 2018 Monzo is “absolutely not” going to be the next Wonga, its founder has said, amid speculation the digital bank was planning to move into the high-cost loan space. Tom Blomfield, whose up-and-coming challenger bank this morning completed a landmark £20m crowdfunding round powered by its own customers, told City A.M. he was “categorically not working [...]
Banks should watch out – the fintech era has barely begun November 20, 2018 The fintech sector makes a lot of noise in London. There’s an endless stream of news about open banking and challenger banks, while the traditional finance sector watches on with a mixture of admiration and suspicion. Banks have come under attack, not only from the hype-machine, but more meaningfully from startups. Traditional finance providers that assumed [...]
RBS’ new digital bank to be called Bo September 27, 2018 Royal Bank of Scotland is understood to be exploring the launch of a digital-only standalone consumer bank, which will go live under the name Bo. Charging forward with RBS’ former operations chief Mark Bailie at the helm, roughly 100 staff are thought to have been briefed on the project’s name, sources told Sky News. [...]
Boss of £775m Royal Bank of Scotland competition payout confirms Santander UK is in running September 27, 2018 The head of a scheme to pay out £775m from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to boost banking sector competition today confirmed that Santander UK and other large lenders are in the running for multi-million-pound award, in spite of criticisms from rival banks. The scheme, designed by the Treasury but run independently by Banking [...]
Debate: Are British high street banks a good opportunity for investors at the moment? September 26, 2018 Debate: Are British high street banks a good opportunity for investors at the moment? Yes – Richard Buxton is chief executive and a fund manager at Old Mutual Global Investors. As a long-term investor in UK banks, the most recent reporting season came as a welcome relief. The litany of conduct charges and regulatory [...]
George Osborne facing pressure from UK building societies over ‘perverse’ bank surcharge August 19, 2015 The Treasury is under fire from Britain’s building societies, who say that a new tax will cost them at least £630m over the next five years – and choke off £20bn worth of lending. Mortgage lenders want the government to think again. “As you would expect the sector is positively engaging with HM Treasury,” Building [...]
Shawbrook profits soar, almost doubling to £34.8m July 28, 2015 Shawbrook has reported a 94 per cent rise in underlying pre-tax profit after its recent IPO and amid ongoing concerns of a bank surcharge. The figures Shawbrook, the challenger bank founded in 2011 to fill the gap left by high street lenders when they tightened restrictions on lending to small firms, has performed strongly in [...]