“We Just Witnessed The Fastest Stock Market Correction on Record” was Friday’s attention grabbing headline, after the S&P 500 dropped more than 10% in just six days. Comparisons to 1987’s Black Monday, the Great Depression and the Great Financial Crisis were (and continue to be) everywhere. It is tempting to dismiss stock market gyrations as isolated incidents that excite the financial community while the rest of the world moves on. However, in this case the Coronavirus truly is a “black swan” event befalling the real economy.

Backbase, the digital banking software leader, today launches its next generation Onboarding & Origination solution across Retail-, SME/Business- and Corporate Banking and Wealth Management. The modern, turn-key solution allows financial institutions to optimize their customers buying experience, fully digitize onboarding and product origination operations and maximize their business agility.

I recently read a BBC article, the headline of which shocked me: “Blockchain: The revolution that hasn't quite happened.” Yet, just a few days later, I read that the Bank of England has teamed up with other major central banks to assess the case for launching their own digital currencies as the debate rages on over the future of money. As always, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

A remarkable 450 blockchain companies call London home. Inflow of talent from the EU (prior to Brexit), low barriers to company incorporation and active involvement of the FCA combined with the broader fintech ecosystem around London is considered to be the key reasons behind this. 

Banking Competition Remedies Limited (BCR) is today announcing details of enhanced dowries for the lower four bands of the Incentivised Switching Scheme (ISS), and an increase in dowries for loans. This comes having reviewed performance of the Scheme as a whole and discussed this with RBS and ISS participants to which the majority of customers have switched since the Scheme started.

PayPal has confirmed integration with ECOMMPAY to pilot the PayPal Commerce Platform.

Sonihull, the world’s leading ultrasonic anti-fouling system, has welcomed two industry veterans onto its board following the announcement of major investment.

Industry leaders Suresh Kavan and Sharon Rowlands have just joined the Sonihull board as strategic advisors. Their appointments and investment mark an important point in the development of the company which has the tagline: ‘Sonihull - Saving the oceans. One ship at a time’.

GreenKite, an independent Professional Services Firm for Insurance and Financial Services, is delighted to announce the appointment of Dean Fathers; experienced entrepreneur, chair and Professor of Organisational Resilience at the University of Lincoln as Chair of the Board. Dean will work directly with GreenKite CEO, Sara Ager and the rest of the founding team, as a trusted adviser and business mentor.

NatWest has today reaffirmed its commitment to supporting UK SMEs by removing the minimum monthly fee from its Business account and launching its free ‘Business Builder’ digital coaching programme for start-ups and entrepreneurs,

Nutanix, a leader in enterprise cloud computing, today announced the financial services industry findings of its second Enterprise Cloud Index Report, measuring financial firms’ plans for adopting private, public and hybrid clouds. The report found the financial sector outpaces all other industries in hybrid cloud deployments – hosting workloads in both private and public cloud – but trail others in their use of multiple public cloud services.