Tandem Bank scales up to Russell Square HQ April 23, 2019 Fast-growing digital bank Tandem has snapped up a new Bloomsbury HQ as it looks to double in size. Moving from King’s Cross, which has welcomed in the likes of tech giants such as Facebook and Sony over the last 12 months, Tandem is relocating to a 16,000 square foot (sq ft) office in Russell Square. Read [...]
Leaving the legacy behind: Meet the tech company that could put a stop to the banks’ IT failures April 23, 2019 IT meltdowns are becoming dangerously common among the big banks. According to Which, at least one British bank suffered an IT failure every day during the last nine months of 2018. TSB’s outage last year, which left 1.9m customers locked out of their accounts and cost the bank £330m, demonstrates how catastrophic these IT issues can [...]
City Moves for 23 April 2019 – Who’s switching jobs at Onfido, Freedom Finance and Ropes & Gray? April 23, 2019 Today's City Moves includes Onfido, Freedom Finance and Ropes & Gray. Onfido Onfido has announced that Kevin Goldsmith and Thomas Ammirati have joined its growing global team as chief technology officer and chief revenue officer will lead Onfido’s 240 expert technologists as it continues its rapid international expansion. Chief revenue officer Thomas Ammirati brings over 25 [...]
City grind: Will law’s stuffy image and long hours stop it attracting top talent? April 22, 2019 Law firms are the original pyramid scheme. The model depends on a wide base of junior lawyers working long hours to generate cash for partners who sit at the top and take a share in the profits. Arguably it is a model that has had its day in an era where a younger generation increasingly prioritises [...]
It’s time to write the next chapter in the City’s story of technological innovation April 15, 2019 When I travel across the globe, there is an issue I get asked about time and time again: what is it about London that makes it such a successful global financial hub? And what is it about the UK that makes us stand out from the crowd? A key part of the answer is innovation. [...]
The Economist branches out with new Birmingham tech hub April 11, 2019 The Economist is set to launch a new technology innovation unit in Birmingham as it looks to boost in-house support for its digital services. The new hub, which will be the company’s first UK site outside London, will house roughly 45 members of staff focused on development and support for the magazine’s website, mobile apps [...]
Startups eye bigger slices of the pie as venture deals scale up April 11, 2019 Venture capital investment into UK startups in the first three months of 2019 was around the same level as last year, as investors turned their focus to later-stage deals. More than £1.2bn has been invested since the start of the year across 161 deals, according to data published today by KPMG. Comparatively Germany was hit [...]
Fintech unicorn N26 under scrutiny from German banking regulator April 11, 2019 Digital banking starlet N26 is under scrutiny from German banking regulator Bafin, after reports emerged of fraudulent transactions and problems with the bank’s communications structure. Concerns about N26 were first reported in October by German newspaper Handelsblatt, before further inquiries by Bafin were said to have revealed numerous deficiencies at the fintech startup. N26, which counts Monzo, [...]
Debate: Could financial services firms be better off basing themselves outside of London? April 9, 2019 Could financial services firms be better off basing themselves outside of the capital? Yes – Andy Mielczarek is chief executive at Chetwood Financial. Being based outside of London has such a raft of incentives that it seems like a no-brainer to set up outside of the capital. The overwhelming difference is operating costs. As we’re [...]
London startups to take fintech unicorn crown from San Francisco April 9, 2019 London is on track to become home to the same number of fintech unicorns as San Francisco, the world's current leader. Out of the 29 fintech unicorns globally – companies with a valuation of more than $1bn (£765.5m) – nine are based in the Californian hub, while seven are housed in the UK capital. Over a third [...]