The North East of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Yorkshire & Humber are fast becoming new powerhouses for UK tech innovation. 

The majority (74%) of mid-market financial services companies have remained resilient in the face of the economic disruption that’s taken place this year, according to the Growth Index released today by mid-market private equity firm ECI Partners.  62% of mid-market financial services companies still expected growth throughout 2020 even after the pandemic had begun in March (a fall from 84% pre-March 2020).

Paul McCreadie, Partner at ECI Partners said:

New data released by Yapily, the UK’s leading open banking network, has revealed how open banking connectivity has become a top priority for banks in the UK as we head into 2021.

The data reveals that despite disruption to banking operations caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, banks had matured in their open banking development once the industry had entered Q3, with response times closing on those of the digitally native neo banks, such as Monzo which averages 211ms in its response time. 

From now on purchasing cryptocurrencies in Germany is simple, secureand fast. The Berlin-based Fintech start-up, spot9, startsits planned rollout of BaFin-compliant Bitcoin ATMs in Germany. BaFin-compliant means that the Bitcoin ATMs fully comply with the regulatory requirements of the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) for example on trading in cryptographic values or the prevention of money laundering.

BlueVenn, the international Customer Data Platform (CDP) provider, today announces that Small World Financial Services, which offers fast, secure worldwide payment services to individuals and businesses alike, has selected BlueVenn to help it further develop its unified customer experience across the brand.

Finastra today announced that Central State Bank, serving the Iowa City-Cedar Rapids Corridor and Northeast Iowa, has upgraded their Finastra core to the latest Fusion Phoenix offering. With Fusion Phoenix, the bank will enjoy seamless integration with its other Finastra-provided banking solutions, which include Fusion CreditQuest, Fusion LaserPro, and Fusion Digital Banking.

Finch Global, Europe’s leading innovator in the anti-money laundering and know your customer services sector, has signed a technology partnership agreement with Heliocor. Heliocor specialises in AI enabled real-time, ID authentication, transaction monitoring, alerting and reporting for regulated industries.

New data from ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW), a leading provider of real-time digital payment software and solutions, has revealed a 21 percent increase in global eCommerce transactions in November 2020 compared to November 2019. Globally, eCommerce transactions are up by a fifth (20%) and in the UK they have risen by 12 percent. *