Modern day technology is making it easier to conduct business abroad, however, there will always be the need for face-to-face meetings. In the United Kingdom alone, around £30 billion is spent on business travel annually with more than £450 spent on average for each trip.

With costs as high as this, companies must find more efficient ways of paying for business travel. This becomes more important when they factor in administration costs, loss of efficiency and charges for using cash and some debit, credit and fuel cards abroad.

ZA Bank Limited (“ZA Bank”) announced today the launch of its pilot trial (“ZA Bank Pilot”) to offer banking services to selected retail banking users in Hong Kong before full business launch to the general public. The pilot trial is conducted under the Fintech Supervisory Sandbox (“FSS”) of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (“HKMA”).

ZA Bank is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ZhongAn Technologies International Group Limited (“ZA”) and is one of the first batch of virtual banks to receive a banking license granted by the HKMA on 27 March 2019.

Starling Bank, the leading digital bank, is supercharging its bank accounts for businesses and sole traders with a range of new features, including unsecured loans of up to £250K, an increase in its overdraft limits from £10K to £150K, more competitive overdraft rates and a custom-built tax and financial management Toolkit.

As part of the changes, Starling is launching its first paid for features for businesses, providing access to a powerful new Business Toolkit, costing £7 per month for sole traders and £12 per month for limited companies.

Encompass Corporation, a fast-growing provider of intelligently automated Know Your Customer (KYC) solutions, has carried out an analysis of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) related penalties handed down between 1 January and 31 December 2019.

Key observations:

Ingenico Group, the global leader in seamless payments, today marks two significant milestones as the payment partner of the prestigious industry awards body, The Card and Payments Awards (TCPA). Not only is it celebrating a decade of supporting the awards, but also raising more than £100,000 through its payment terminals for TCPA’s chosen charities during that time.

Refinitiv, one of the world’s largest providers of financial markets data and infrastructure, today announced the appointment of Andrea Remyn Stone as Chief Customer Proposition Officer and member of the Executive Leadership team. Andrea will report to the CEO of Refinitiv, David Craig.

Andrea’s appointment demonstrates Refinitiv’s continued commitment to expand its overarching product and content strategy for the global financial community by creating richer data and unparalleled insight, workflow and analytics. Andrea will be based in London.

 Ziraat Participation Bank in Sudan, a unit affiliated to Ziraat Katilim Bankasi and Ziraat Finans Group, one of largest banking groups in Turkey operating on both Islamic and conventional platforms, has taken the big leap to implement Path Solutions’ multi-award winning iMAL Islamic core banking platform.

LHV, the fintech focused bank and payment services provider, is pleased to announce that it has commenced providing real-time pound payments via the UK’s Faster Payments scheme. As a result, LHV has become the first bank capable of providing real time euro payments via Single Euro Payment Area Instant (‘SEPA Instant’) and processing pound (‘Faster Payments’) payments, giving it a unique competitive advantage and cementing its position as a leading services provider to the global fintech sector.
 

Kroll, a division of Duff & Phelps, a global leader in risk mitigation, investigations, compliance, cyber resilience, security and incident response solutions, today announced that it has expanded its cyber security offerings with the acquisition of RP Digital Security, a Singapore-headquartered leader in computer forensic investigations, digital security and eDiscovery services.