The FCA announced on the 18^th November 2020, that passporting of certain payment services for UK licenced institutions to European Economic Area (EEA) states will expire at the end the transition period on 31 December 2020.

Leading UK anti-money laundering (AML) firm SmartSearch has bolstered its global growth ambitions with the appointment of an international development director, to oversee its expansion into US and European markets.

Martin Turvey has stepped into the role which has been created as part of SmartSearch’s ongoing business growth strategy, reflecting the global demand for the market-leading AML solution.

Digitalization has reached the insurance industry later than in other sectors. The pressure is coming particularly from the customers themselves: They expect a consistently digital insurance experience - a trend heavily fueled by the coronavirus crisis.

Insurance by smartphone - customers today in particular want digital solutions. One third of Brits want to take out insurance completely digitally because of the COVID-19 outbreak. The rising interest in digital insurance is independent of age or gender.

The Quppy digital financial solution is launching its first referral program. The Quppy current and new users are now provided with their unique referral links to share among their communities.

The Quppy referral program works on a volume basis. Both the referrer and the referee are awarded with 15 euros right after the referee transaction volume reaches 600 euro. Every Quppy user has an unlimited number of referral initiatives.

Barclaycard Payments, which processes £1 in every £3 spent in the UK, has so far this month seen a 29 per cent jump in the value of the online transactions compared to November 2019. However, overall transactions remain 7 per cent below where they were in November last year, likely due to the drop in in-store sales, with many retail outlets currently unable to open.

Salesforce, the global leader in CRM, released its Trends in Financial Services report which shows how financial services institutions struggle to keep up with the pace of change driven by the global pandemic. An analysis of two waves of survey data fielded in 2019 and 2020 shows that the customer experience suffered in response, leading organizations to reshuffle their priorities and drive competitive advantage with new technologies. 

Investment is the lifeblood of FinTechs of all stages, from start-up to scale-ups - but what role will the Angel community play as start-ups face the Covid-19 challenge?

Europe’s FinTech sector is still growing despite the current Covid-19 crisis - VCs and angel investors still have the appetite for investing in these start-ups.

Forter, the leader in e-commerce fraud prevention, announced it has raised $125 million in Series E funding. Led by Bessemer Venture Partners, Felix Capital and Itai Tsiddon, with participation from Sequoia Capital, NewView Capital, Scale Venture Partners, March Capital Partners and Commerce Ventures, the round propels Forter’s valuation to over $1.3 billion.

Juni,  banking tailor made for the marketing and e-commerce ecosystem, has just secured €2M in seed round filled almost in its entirety by Cherry, an early stage venture fund that champions founders in Europe. As a partner, Cherry will bring years of expertise in evolving e-commerce and fintech startups like Zalando and spotify.