Analysis from global consultancy partnership Kearney has found that the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting recession will mean that banks across Europe need to rethink their strategies and reduce their costs by over £30 billion (€35 billion) to overcome this crisis. 

Today the British Business Bank has announced that it has approved three new lenders for accreditation under the Bounce Bank Loan Scheme. The scheme is intended to target small and micro businesses in all sectors, with loans from £2k up to 25% of the business’ turnover with a maximum loan of £50k.

Countingup, the business current account that automates your accounting, has received the backing of leading fintech investors. The London-based startup has raised £4m in a bridge round of financing led by ING Ventures with co-investment from Triple Point, CVentures and BiG Start Ventures. All are backing the company’s vision to be the one financial hub for 1m small businesses. In the two years since Countingup launched, it now boasts more than twenty thousand customers and has processed almost £1bn in transactions.

Avaloq has been named one of the world’s leading technology firms for wealth managers in the 2020 WealthTech100, an annual list of the 100 most innovative wealth tech companies in the world. Companies are selected by a panel of industry professionals and analysts from over 1,200 shortlisted firms, with leaders being ranked on criteria such as efficiency improvements or cost savings for clients, market growth and innovative use of technology to solve complex industry problems. The WealthTech100 is run by FinTech Global, a specialist research firm.

There is no question that the pandemic has created large-scale social and behavioural shifts among consumers. Not only has it fundamentally changed attitudes toward risk, but it is challenging expectations around online security, convenience and access, or lack thereof, to key staples, e.g. toilet paper purchased online, and other digital services.

A bridge is only as solid as its foundations. And, while there are exceptions, like the Old London Bridge and Ponte Vecchio in Florence, they are not places to linger—just a method of getting from one place to another.

This is something the banking industry needs to keep in mind.

B2B digital payments integration specialist, Adflex, now enables both acquirers and supply chain businesses to simplify and accelerate integration of its modular digital payment services, following the cloud-transformation of its popular payments platform.

“By wrapping our suite of digital payment services in RESTful APIs, we can now serve our acquirer and merchant clients with new levels of flexibility and agility,” comments Pat Bermingham, CEO, Adflex.

Ebury, the global transaction platform, has been approved as an Accredited Lender on the British Business Bank's (BBB) Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), enabling it to support UK SMEs with government-backed loans through this difficult time.

Ebury provides specialist loans to SME companies that trade internationally and, in April, the UK-headquartered fintech was approved for similar schemes by the Dutch, Spanish and Italian governments. The company is now actively pursuing opportunities to support government lending in all 20 countries where it operates.