Pluto Finance, a leading property finance provider, is pleased to announce the appointment of Shane Ryan as Lending Director for the UK and Ireland. This strategic hire marks an exciting step in Pluto Finance’s continued growth and expansion into the Irish market.

As we approach 2025, financial institutions across the EU face the challenge of complying with the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which is set to take effect on the 17th of January. DORA is focused on strengthening cybersecurity and operational resilience across financial ecosystems, with the consequences for non-compliance ranging from regulatory fines to reputational damage and an increased risk of cyberattacks.

Financial crime—things like fraud, money laundering, and illegal fund transfers—is a growing problem that affects economies worldwide. While recent initiatives, like the UK ‘Financial Crime Intelligence Sharing Initiative’, signal progress, the tools and technology for detecting and preventing financial crime must evolve urgently to outpace increasingly sophisticated criminal networks.

RTPs

Real-time payments have surged in recent years, with huge growth in cross-border transactions - however, the B2B space remains relatively untapped. In 2025, we anticipate significant growth in B2B real-time payments, driven by enhanced interoperability and the growing need for streamlined corporate operations. This will help bolster market competition but also enhance transaction security and efficiencies - a critical demand as businesses move faster than ever in the global economy.

The regulatory gaze will intensify. It’s fair to say that regulation usually lags behind innovation – but that innovation also attracts scrutiny. In 2025, we’ll see significant movement as the world’s regulators seek to balance their objectives of consumer protection and market integrity with allowing room for innovation to thrive.

eBay and Klarna, the AI-powered global payments network and shopping assistant, have announced the expansion of their strategic partnership to key European markets making Klarna’s Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) payment options available to more eBay shoppers. The move gives eBay buyers more choice and flexibility in how they pay, and aligns with the evolving preferences of today’s shoppers.

Visa, a global leader in digital payments, today announced that with Visa Direct, funds transferred to U.S. bank accounts will be available within 1 minute or less starting in April 2025. Consumers, businesses, and governments can use Visa Direct to deposit funds to bank accounts linked to eligible debit cards in real-time.

Jiko, the technology platform and bank that provides seamless access to U.S. Treasury bills, announced today the completion of a $29 million Series C funding round led by existing investors Upfront Ventures, with the participation from Airbus Ventures, Red River West, Radicle Impact and other undisclosed investors.

N26 today announced the launch of Ready-Made Funds, a new offering added to its existing Stocks & ETFs trading product designed to make investing easier and more accessible than ever before.

Conventional fraud detection methods have a hard time keeping up with increasingly sophisticated criminal tactics. Existing systems often rely on the limited data of individual institutions, and this hinders the detection of intricate schemes that span multiple banks and jurisdictions. 

To better combat fraud in cross-border payments, Swift, the global provider of secure financial messaging services, is working with Google Cloud to develop anti-fraud technologies that use advanced AI and federated learning.