As 2021 unfolds, the topic of tax is set to dominate headlines. Tax to recoup the costs of Covid, tax on large, high profit companies, and new areas of tax to generate revenue and influence changes in society, such as environmental social and governance (ESG). One tax that has gone live without much of a splash, though, is the new Spanish financial transaction tax (FTT). While the reporting and payment for this new tax start in April, the calculations must be done from 16^th of January 2021.

Leading Georgian bank BasisBank announced its partnership with banking technology provider Backbase to power its digital transformation and deliver hyper-personalized experiences to Retail and SME customers. Backbase’s world-leading Engagement Banking platform will enable BasisBank to expand its retail banking offering by providing unique mobile experiences to its customers – all while enhancing its ability to innovate at speed and scale.    

AIO - Verified Financial Identity, a Fintech company based in Tel Aviv, and Finastra, today announced that they have been awarded a USD $1 million grant from the Board of Governors of the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation for the co-development of a digital customer onboarding solution.

Elizabeth O’Neill is a highly experienced General Counsel with more than 20 years’ experience in the public and private sectors advising on EU competition law, international law and corporate governance. She has undertaken a variety of legal leadership roles for Her Majesty’s Government throughout her career.

FinecoBank, one of Europe’s leading fintech banks, today reported a strong acceleration from its UK client base in the last few months of 2020, and an overall increase in active clients on brokerage. Fineco’s UK total current accounts increased by about 70% during 2020, while the ratio between active accounts on trading and total active current accounts jumped 63% from 15% in 2019.

 Highlights:

OpenWay was recognized as the highest-ranked vendor of payment processing platforms in the global market by Aite, a global research and advisory group.

Cobalt, a multi award-winning provider of risk and settlement infrastructure, announced today its partnership with EPAM Systems, Inc.

Itiviti, a leading technology and service provider to financial institutions worldwide, today announced that the London Metal Exchange (LME) has chosen Itiviti’s FIX Conductor and VeriFIX Enterprise solutions to automate the onboarding process for their clients. 

Valour, the Swiss-based issuer of investment products that provide exposure to innovative technologies, today announced the appointment of former HSBC Private Banking Global Head of Innovation, Diana Biggs, as CEO.

Keeping up with the upbeat momentum in the global crypto industry, CoinDCX is pleased to announce its latest crypto-to-crypto (C2C) product offering, Cosmex. Cosmex is CoinDCX’s global product that reimagines how crypto trading works and gives an entirely new, powerful, and simple model to crypto trading.