Countingup, the number one banking and accounting app in the UK, has launched a free coronavirus grant calculator for sole traders, grantcalculator.co.uk.

The calculator helps self-employed sole traders see what grant they are likely to be eligible for under the Self-employment Income Support Scheme which is due to launch at the end of April. They can also see likely lost earnings.

Our local main streets have been amongst the hardest hit from the COVID-19 pandemic. To help address this challenge, Mastercard today announced a commitment of $250 million over five years to support small businesses in the United States and other markets where we operate. The announcement came during the virtual America CARES Small Business Relief event hosted at the White House on Tuesday afternoon.

Flywire, a high-growth vertical payments company, has today announced a new research report that reveals 67% of international students are concerned if they can’t use their tuition payment method of choice at UK universities.

In a recent blog, we looked at the impact of the COVID-19 virus on the global payments industry. One certainty is that the virus will dominate the short-term.

Phos, the fintech that created the first ever software PoS which allows merchants to accept payments directly on their phones, today announced that it has closed a fundraising round of €1.3M. The round was led by New Vision 3 and also saw new angel investment in the business. The new funding sees the total amount raised by the business increase to €2.5M, enabling phos to grow its development team to introduce new features like PIN on Phone, its Software Development Kit (SDK) and a new integrated loyalty system.

Credit Hero, an online lender from Hong Kong, teamed up with Salt Edge, a leader in offering open banking solutions, to access borrowers’ bank data at digital speed and eliminate the traditional paper chase.

Hong Kong is a leading global financial hub. As recently the macroeconomic environment has changed, the lending market is experiencing a so-called digital seismic shift. Escalating uncertainties kickstart the demand for credit products which provide fast access to consumption-oriented liquidity.

Technology and consulting firms that address financial crime, trading floor operations and related risk issues were inundated this week with requests from financial institutions with respect to how we would support them considering a potentially expanding impact of Coronavirus. Issues related to record-keeping contingencies have appeared at the forefront of the concerns expressed by leading FIs, particularly with respect to trading floor operations.

As our clients and firms across the buy side begin to process the recent BCBS and IOSCO recommendation to delay by one year the implementation of phases 5 and 6 of the uncleared margin rules (UMR), we wanted to share why Cassini Systems supports this move.

DriveWealth, LLC, a U.S. based leader in global digital trading technology, today announced the launch of a new Health Savings Account (HSA) division, DriveHSA^®. The new division aims to transform the HSA landscape by helping HSA platform providers enhance their current offerings with modern investing tools and allowing end-users to invest in real-time fractional shares of U.S. equities, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) and mutual funds.

From today, an additional 40,000 free meals will be available to NHS heroes on Uber Eats.

Together, Uber Eats and Mastercard hope this will help reduce the pressure on the heroes on the frontline of the coronavirus crisis.

NHS staff will receive a £10 voucher, donated by Mastercard, that they can use on the Uber Eats app to buy a meal from thousands of restaurants and convenience stores in more than 150 towns and cities across the UK.

Toussaint Wattinne, Uber Eats General Manager, UK said: