NatWest has today announced the launch of a major development to its flagship open banking payments service, Payit by NatWest, that will allow businesses to send payments directly to customers without needing their bank details – an industry first.

The feature aims to replace the use of cheques and bank transfers when sending money to customers, allowing for instant payments to be made when issuing refunds or customer service payments, as well as for specific uses such as compensation payments and emergency cash requirements.

Compass Plus has become the first company in Russia to test Oracle’s newest cloud infrastructure update - successfully completing the stress testing of its cloud-native open development payments platform, TranzAxis, using the new Oracle Exadata Cloud Service X8M. 

Fintech lender, Blue, has announced a new partnership with challenger credit reference agency and Open Banking provider, Credit Kudos, to extend its services to even more customers.

Leading engagement banking platform provider Backbase announces today that it has partnered with Zafin, the global leader in SaaS cloud-native product and pricing solutions for banks, to integrate Zafin’s relationship-based product and pricing capabilities into its Engagement Banking platform. 

Anne-Sophie Castelnau has been appointed ING’s global head of Sustainability per 1 April 2021. She will succeed Amin Mansour, who fulfilled the role on an interim basis. Anne-Sophie is currently head of Wholesale Banking for ING in France.

Nets customers in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden will find PayPal available on the Nets e-commerce platform, Easy, along with cards and local payment options for SMBs. Nordic merchants – particularly those with an international customer base – will benefit from a broader range of payment alternatives presented in a seamless customer interface.

 TreeCard -- the world’s first wooden Mastercard™ payment card that plants trees with everyday spending -- has raised a $5.12 million seed round led by EQT Ventures, with participation from Seedcamp and Episode 1. Angel investors including Matt Robinson (the founder of GoCardless) and Charlie Delingpole (founder of ComplyAdvantage) also participated in the round.

Open Banking pioneer, Nuapay, powered by Sentenial, today announces it is extending its open banking payment capabilities to German and Italian banks. Nuapay’s expansion will enable German and Italian partners to offer open banking payment solutions, powering seamless account-2-account payments for their customers. 

Atom, the UK’s first app-based bank, is to raise £40m from existing shareholders as it moves to profitability from its mortgage and business lending within a year, and to IPO the year after.