Despite the continued challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on funding rounds globally, Monument (or the “Bank”) has raised over £28m million, significantly ahead of expectations and successfully completing one of the largest Series A funding rounds in fintech / banking of 2020 / 21, backed by a combination of new and existing experienced investors.

Broadridge has appointed Jerome Hoffman to the newly created role of Head of International Partnerships and Alliances, focusing on the EMEA and Asia Pacific regions. In this new role Hoffman will focus on creating and further developing relationships with firms across the financial services spectrum, including technology vendors and service providers, consultancies, system integrators, market intermediaries and infrastructure providers.

NatWest has today announced the launch of a major development to its flagship open banking payments service, Payit by NatWest, that will allow businesses to send payments directly to customers without needing their bank details – an industry first.

The feature aims to replace the use of cheques and bank transfers when sending money to customers, allowing for instant payments to be made when issuing refunds or customer service payments, as well as for specific uses such as compensation payments and emergency cash requirements.

Compass Plus has become the first company in Russia to test Oracle’s newest cloud infrastructure update - successfully completing the stress testing of its cloud-native open development payments platform, TranzAxis, using the new Oracle Exadata Cloud Service X8M. 

Fintech lender, Blue, has announced a new partnership with challenger credit reference agency and Open Banking provider, Credit Kudos, to extend its services to even more customers.

Leading engagement banking platform provider Backbase announces today that it has partnered with Zafin, the global leader in SaaS cloud-native product and pricing solutions for banks, to integrate Zafin’s relationship-based product and pricing capabilities into its Engagement Banking platform. 

Anne-Sophie Castelnau has been appointed ING’s global head of Sustainability per 1 April 2021. She will succeed Amin Mansour, who fulfilled the role on an interim basis. Anne-Sophie is currently head of Wholesale Banking for ING in France.

Nets customers in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden will find PayPal available on the Nets e-commerce platform, Easy, along with cards and local payment options for SMBs. Nordic merchants – particularly those with an international customer base – will benefit from a broader range of payment alternatives presented in a seamless customer interface.

 TreeCard -- the world’s first wooden Mastercard™ payment card that plants trees with everyday spending -- has raised a $5.12 million seed round led by EQT Ventures, with participation from Seedcamp and Episode 1. Angel investors including Matt Robinson (the founder of GoCardless) and Charlie Delingpole (founder of ComplyAdvantage) also participated in the round.