A retreat into protectionism, already evident as a trend for some time, has been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, resultant economic instability, and the EU vaccine rift. As countries scramble to protect businesses considered essential to national interest, attitudes to foreign investment are becoming increasingly stringent.

Payink, a fast-growing payments and receivables provider to professional services firms, has announced the appointed of Alejandra Gimenez as its VP Finance & Growth. This is a second senior leadership appointment by the company in two weeks. Prior to joining Payink, Alejandra was a senior member of the finance team of cross-border payments unicorn Dlocal. 

The Board of Banking Competition Remedies Ltd (BCR) today publishes progress updates for Pool E recipients, providing a summary of performance against their public commitments to the period 28^th February 2021.

The Derivatives Service Bureau (DSB), founded by the Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA) to facilitate the allocation and maintenance of International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs), Classification of Financial Instrument codes (CFIs) and Financial Instrument Short Names (FISNs), for OTC derivatives, has today announced the 2021 industry consultation on the 2022 OTC ISIN and CFI service provision is now open.

Comment from Sudeepto Mukherjee, Senior Vice President, Financial Services at consultancy Publicis Sapient:

Financial industry in Europe has to adjust to many regulations updates nowadays. The 6th EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD6) came into force, Brexit happened. What should be aware of and how to keep up with compliance? I will take a look at it in this article.

AMLD6: what has changed

Computop, a leading global payment processor, has today announced that its payment platform, Computop Paygate, is now making Card Scheme Tokens, issued by major card brands, available to its merchants. The use of tokens makes online card payments for European merchants safer and more convenient: by storing tokens, they can anchor card information in the customer account without risk, saving their customers the hassle of entering data.

New applications of QR codes in recent months mean that they have become part of our everyday lives, including as part of ticketing solutions. The motivation is simple: they quickly offer touchless payment and access control options. However, are they a credible long-term solution? Alongside significant security threats for operators and consumers, there’s a risk they provide only moderate improvements in customer experience due to ergonomic challenges and could be hampering end-to-end mobility. Let me explain further…