Xero, the global small business platform, today announced major enhancements to payments on the platform, making it easier than ever for small businesses to set up card and debit payments for customer invoices, pay multiple bills quickly, and reconcile everything against their accounting ledger.

Unveiled at Xerocon London 2019, where over 3,000 accountants, bookkeepers and partners have gathered, the announcements include:

Banking Circle Lending has been named Best Alternative SME Lender in the £0-£250,000 category at the Credit Strategy Lending Awards. 

Announced at a ceremony during the Credit Strategy Lending Summit in London, the Lending Awards is the only awards programme which distinguishes and rewards individuals and businesses across the spectrum of Alternative Lending, Commercial Finance and Mortgage sectors. As such they celebrate and recognise excellence across the UK credit market.

Finastra announced today, during Finastra Universe Dubai, that it has signed a transformative deal with United Arab Bank, a UAE-based bank that offers services to retail and corporate customers.

Visa, the world’s leader in digital payments, and Space, the first fully digital bank in Georgia, today announced they have signed a partnership agreement to jointly develop innovative banking services and expand digital banking footprints in new geographies.

Pico, a leading provider of technology-as-a-service for the financial markets community globally, today announced that EDBI, a global Asian-based Investor, is now a Pico investor and strategic partner.  

Big tech's long march on financial services continues, with Google partnering Citi and a small Stanford University-affiliated credit union to launch a checking account.

CIMB Bank Berhad, Singapore branch ("CIMB") today announced its collaboration with SESAMi Holding and Capital Match, to finance the SESAMi trading community's invoices digitally under an automated workflow.  

The success of open banking will ultimately depend on the difference it makes to customers. It’s one thing for people to be able to see all of their various account balances in one place. But if the process for moving money or managing payments remains largely unchanged, is this really much more than a gimmick? It will take something more to influence customer loyalty.

Small players within the wealth management sector can now compete with and challenge big firms, thanks to the launch of Wealthinity.

Created to empower financial advisors, wealth managers and private banks, Wealthinity enables small to medium firms to offer customized investment solutions, service their clients faster and drive business growth, without any additional costs.

Standard Chartered has partnered with Quantexa, the contextual decision intelligence software company, to amplify its anti-financial crime efforts globally.