Marijke Koninckx, Chief Product Officer at BankiFi, explores how SMEs have been left behind for too long and how technology is helping to put this right for the banks and their customers.

Moneyhub, the market-leading Open Data and payments platform, is partnering with Pennyworth, a financial planning and banking app,   to redesign digital banking for the aspiring-affluent consumer.
 
Pennyworth, which has applied for a UK banking licence, has developed a unique planning tool powered by Moneyhub’s award-winning APIs. The tool uses a combination of Open Banking, Open Finance and machine learning to turn goals into a customised financial plan and track progress against those targets.

Starling Bank today reports its first full year of profitability. The digital bank swung to a pre-tax profit of £32.1 million for the financial year ending 31 March 2022 from a pre-tax loss of £31.5 million for the period to 31 March 2021. Revenue for the same period to 31 March 2022 was £188 million.

Starling’s previous financial year, to 31 March 2021, covered a 16-month period to reflect a change in the timing of the bank’s financial reporting.

Insurtech Gateway announces the first close of Seed Fund II. This fund will enable them to support another 20 teams over the next 4 years from pre-seed to Series A. The Gateway is on a mission to close the funding gap in early-stage insurtech, and to attract a new kind of founder tackling complex climate and social challenges. The Gateway incubates early-stage founders to de-risk their regulatory and insurance metrics.

OneMarketData, LLC, a leader in tick data management and analytics, today announced the appointment of Peter Simpson as OneTick Product Owner. An experienced technologist with a history of working with the largest banks, brokers, fund managers and exchanges in London and New York, Simpson will be responsible for ensuring OneTick products expand and evolve to keep up with ever-changing customer needs.  

Investment and product development executives Josh Hile and Marshall Dunford announced today the formation of Citizen Mint, a new impact investing platform designed to help investors generate both financial returns and positive societal and environmental impacts.

As human beings we constantly seek change and innovation within our world, and this is especially true in the worlds of finance and technology. It’s only natural then that these two spheres would combine, and these innovations are used to improve the service offerings and the way things are done. Blockchain is perhaps one of the most exciting innovations that naturally fits into the world of finance, particularly as we become more aware of how private companies and banks are in complete control of our money and finance.

BankiFi, an embedded banking solutions provider, announced its expansion into North America with the launch of BankiFi Americas. The organisation’s growth and expansion into the U.S. market will support the unique digitisation and payment modernisation requirements of SMBs while placing financial institutions at the heart of the relationship.

Millennials and Gen Z have been widely covered over the last few years as the beneficiaries of the incoming ‘wealth transfer’ from baby boomers, framed as setting young people up as a fresh set of keen investors looking to maximise their wealth. More digitally savvy than any previous generation, much discussion has revolved around how to appeal to them by digitising the front office, providing clever and personalised data insights and interactive platforms such as robo-advisers.