Fintech startup SmartPay has launched a financial inclusion wallet in Vietnam. It targets 25 million consumers and 6 million small and medium merchants. User onboarding is fast and easy – after downloading the SmartPay app and completing your KYC, you can become fully enrolled and able to make your first transaction in a matter of minutes.

User-side security monitoring system Feroot today released its 2019 User Security and Privacy Report examining the hidden behaviors of external third- and fourth-party tools on the user-side for websites and web apps. Of the 13 different industries and government agency websites worldwide reviewed, the report found that:

GDP grows by 0.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2019, according to the Office for National Statistics quarterly national accounts out today.

The largest contributors to this increase are the 5.7 million small businesses in the UK today – making up 99 per cent of businesses in the UK economy. SMEs continue to be the main driving force behind employment and innovation – providing 16.3 million jobs in 2018 alone, 60 per cent of all private sector employment in the UK.

A common belief in the financial services industry is that traditional banks are under fierce threat from challenger banks, fintechs and global tech corporations, alike. With competition growing by the day, take Facebook’s recent Libra announcement as just one example, many banks are searching for a way out of the struggle.

The huge proliferation of sensitive data, increasing technological complexities and a continually evolving regulatory landscape mean data handling is more difficult than ever in the financial world. Cloud-computing has, to some extent, provided solutions and eased some of the pressures of working with big data but there is still a long way to go. Multi-cloud is gaining traction, with standard suite offerings from a growing number of cloud providers tackling many hurdles. Simultaneously, this is presenting new challenges.

Finastra has issued a challenge to Fintechs and developers with its first ever public appathon, inviting anyone with a good idea to build an application that solves a common pain point for North American community banks and credit unions, using its 

EMVCo is to deliver an EMV® Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) education session in partnership with the U.S. Payment Forum on Thursday 18 July, 14:15-17:00 at the Atlanta Airport Marriott, USA. The session is open to all interested parties without charge and is the first public event EMVCo has held since it released the EMV® SRC Specifications earlier this month.

GIRO Zrt. and Nets A/S announces that they have delivered Nets’ well-proven instant payments platform – RealTime24/7 – in Hungary. The platform is now open for the Hungarian banks to test services.

The delivery of the platform is the outcome of a close and successful partnership between the parties, which means that the instant payments platform was delivered on time in accordance with the originally agreed plan.

“We are happy to say that we have delivered on time in a very fruitful cooperation with GIRO Zrt”, says Torben Hohlmann, SVP in Nets.