5 Key Takeaways from the UK Fintech Strategy

5 Key Takeaways from the UK Fintech Strategy
There’s no doubt that the UK government recognises the importance of financial services, and in a rapidly changing technological environment the need for the UK to position itself as the best place in the world for fintech. On 22-March the UK Government launched the Fintech Sector Strategy: Securing the Future of UK Fintech. In this post, ...

The Top Payments News Stories in March 2018

Lot’s of payments news stories flying about this month. Unsurprisingly Open Banking is hitting the headlines, a focus on fintech in the UK, innovation and talk of the Kodak moment in financial services. Check out the following top payments news stories for March 2018: 1. Payments News – Cyber Security Equifax to notify another 2.4 million ...

Payment Fees – The Difference Between BEN, OUR and SHA 11

I have received a couple of recurring questions about payment fees, specifically the difference between BEN, OUR and SHA. So, lets get straight to it… Payment Fees / Transaction Charges The sending bank and receiving bank in a payment transaction may charge a fee for processing the payment. Within each payment specific codes are used by ...

5 Ripple Tweets That Absolutely Dominated Money20/20 Asia

I was curious to see what happened at Money 20/20 Asia, which took place in Singapore this last week, 13-15th March. So, took to Twitter to get the low down. There was some pretty interesting stuff, covering all of the hot topics: cybersecurity, financial inclusion, a keynote by Piyush Gupta, the fintech unbundling of banks, ...

Is Amazon About to Disrupt Banking? [Infographic] 4

Is Amazon About to Disrupt Banking? [Infographic]
Last week Bain and Company released a published an article titled Banking’s Amazon Moment. I think its fair to say that it has caused a storm, Amazon are disrupting virtually every industry they get into. Couple that with the Fintech threat (or is it?) and it accelerates-heightens previous concerns about technology companies and you have ...

23 Step ‘Fintech Action Plan’ by the European Commission 2

23 Step 'Fintech Action Plan' by the European Commission
Today the European Commission published a 23 Step ‘Fintech Action Plan’ to help promote more competitive and innovative financial services across the European Union. The Fintech Action Plan press release gives you a quick flavour of the high level plan with the usual focus on blockchain, distributed ledger technologies, digitisation, cybersecurity and crowdfunding with a view ...

The Top Payments News Stories in February 2018

This month the payments news stories seem to be dominated by PSD2, Open Banking and all things blockchain. In particular stories of multiple Ripple initiatives here, there and everywhere! Plenty of interesting reading, with some noteworthy reports too. Check out the following top payments news stories for February 2018: 1. Payments News – Cyber Security ...

Explained: RTS, SCA and CSC WRT PSD2 [EPC Infographic] 1

A couple of weeks ago the European Payments Council (EPC) released a pretty interesting infographic which covers some complex terms such as RTS, SCA, CSC – all of which are key components of PSD2. The infographic also gives a timely update on the current status of  PSD2 and the RTS rules. Below you can see ...

KPMG Recap of Fintech in 2017 and Fintech Predictions for 2018 3

KPMG Recap of Fintech in 2017 and Fintech Predictions for 2018
The KPMG Pulse of Fintech report is a must read for anybody interested in technology and financial services. And the current installation The Pulse of Fintech Q4 2017 is doubly noteworthy since it both recaps the state of fintech in 2017 and also looks ahead with some predictions for fintech in 2018. Read the report for ...

The Top Payments News Stories in January 2018

January 2018, big month! Open Banking came to Europe, and while things were relatively quiet, in years to come I am sure we will all reflect back on Jan-2018 as the month where it all started. Fintech and blockchain announcements continue to catch my eye, as do the reports of the month. Check out the following ...