A new industry report produced by The Payments Association, UK Finance and Latham & Watkins assesses the impact of UK regulation on payments businesses and identifies key opportunities for enhancements.

The Payments Association (formerly The Emerging Payments Association (EPA)), UK Finance, the collective voice for the banking and finance industry, and global law firm Latham & Watkins, today announce the launch of ‘UK Payments Regulation Review: Making sense of where to go now’. This industry report explores the impact of regulation and outlines how industry, lawmakers and regulators can work together to strengthen and enhance the country’s payments infrastructure and regulatory and supervisory frameworks, following both Brexit and in light of the expanding digitalisation of the economy.

With commerce and day-to-day personal finance transactions increasingly moving online, regulatory priorities must continue to shift from financial stability to supporting market innovation. Similarly, technologies that were unthinkable around the turn of the millennium like digital identity frameworks and distributed ledger technology have entered mainstream conversations and are likely to have profound impacts for the sector.

The report identifies a number of opportunities that lawmakers, regulators and industry may wish to take advantage of. With payments as a foundational pillar of the financial services market and wider economy, as well as a creator of jobs and investment, the report outlines how the payments sector can drive change, in-part, through self-regulation and how its future should involve collaboration between market participants and regulatory stakeholders. It goes on to discuss how UK payment firms operate internationally, the importance of international market infrastructure access, including SEPA, and the need for regulations to continue to provide international parity to support, and reduce friction in, cross-border payments.

Reviewing everything from major socioeconomic trends to recent case law, the report outlines practical next steps.

Tony Craddock, Director General at The Payments Association, comments: “It is an exciting and challenging time to be in the payments space. In a very short time, we have seen the explosive growth of the FinTech industry, the arrival of distributed ledger technology like cryptocurrency and stablecoins and the UK leaving the EU while simultaneously adopting PSD2 regulations. This is a timely report that grapples with the major issues in the payments industry and produces ideas on how to create the next generation of regulations, and we are keen to see how the wider industry reacts to the proposals we make.”

Jana Mackintosh, UK Finance, says: “We believe that regulators and industry have an opportunity to think afresh about payments regulation and supervision. This industry report will help players in the sector to reflect on the digitalisation of payments and consolidate past learnings that can be drawn upon as the industry moves forward."

Brett Carr, Senior Associate Fintech & Payments, Latham & Watkins, adds: “We are proud to lend our firm’s legal expertise and deep fintech and payments experience to this report at such an important time for the sector. The UK and EU payments markets have experienced a prolonged period of regulatory change punctuated by implementation challenges, the impacts of Brexit, Covid-19 and a shifting supervisory strategy of the regulators. With question marks remaining over the UK’s priorities for the regulation and development of the fintech sector, market participants will be anticipating how the regulatory environment is set to progress. This report presents a compelling case for greater cooperation between the industry, lawmakers and regulators, and calls for an evolution in approach that both enables and supports innovation.”

To download a copy of the report, please visit: https://bit.ly/3iahWq2

For more information on the work and services of The Payments Association you can visit https://thepaymentsassociation.org/ or contact jay.bennett@thepaymentsassociation.org

 Independent lender Mallard Finance has picked Nordigen as their Account Information Service Provider (AISP), to generate a more comprehensive application procedure. 

Mallard Finance is an independent and family-owned lender, offering hire purchase finance services on used cars and vans to customers in England and Wales. The firm works with a wide range of customers, including businesses and individuals across the credit risk spectrum. They employ an individual approach to each customer, utilising a multi-layered system to assess creditworthiness including detailed evaluations performed by an underwriter, as well as credit scores and AI-powered reports. 

The connection with Nordigen enables Mallard Finance to additionally access financial data directly from clients’ bank accounts during the application process to gain a more in-depth overview of their customers’ current financial transactions and income. 

“It has been a real pleasure to work with Nordigen on this project. They have a very strong product offering and are technically excellent. We found integration with them to be very easy and their support has been friendly and efficient. We are glad to have found such a reliable partner and look forward to working with them,'' says Ed Stevenson, Operations Director at Mallard Finance.  

All financial information gathered through Nordigen’s open banking connection is kept safe and secure, and bank account data can only be accessed through the explicit consent of Mallard Finance users. 

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Mallard Finance. They are seasoned professionals and have been successfully delivering finance solutions to many people and organisations throughout the years. We are happy to see companies continuing to choose open banking to further enhance their already existing services and internal assessment procedures,” explains Rolands Mesters, co-founder and CEO of Nordigen.

Following a year of exceptional growth, new customer acquisitions and renewed investment, global fraud fighters, SEON have been awarded the title of ‘Cyber Security Solution of the Year’ at the FSTech Awards.  

Victory at the FSTech Awards reaffirms SEON’s burgeoning reputation as the go-to fraud prevention solution for the most influential companies in the fintech sector. To this end, in the past year alone, the company has announced major partnership agreements with notable leaders in the field, including Revolut, Nubank, Afterpay, Patreon, Sorare and Mollie.  

The ‘Cyber Security Solution of the Year’ category recognizes the best cyber security solution offered by a technology provider. By winning the award, SEON has demonstrated that its innovative solution is able to constantly evolve to an emerging threat landscape by employing cutting edge technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.  

Speaking on the win, Jimmy Fong, Chief Commercial Officer at SEON commented: “It’s always a great feeling to garner commendation from your industry peers, which is why we’re so pleased to have been victorious at the FSTech Awards. Receiving the award is yet further proof that we’re winning the fight to democratize the battle against online fraud. 

“We were delighted to be part of the awards’ ceremony, which by all accounts was a tremendous success. We’d like to pass on our deepest appreciation to the event organizers for putting on such a fantastic evening and, of course, for selecting SEON as the ‘Cyber Security Solution of the Year’.” 

Bringing together some of the biggest names within the fintech and financial services sectors, the FSTech Awards is now in its 22nd year. This year’s event was held in the London Marriot Hotel in Grosvenor Square. SEON will now enter the awards’ ‘Hall of Fame’ on account of its victory, along with all fellow winners.  

With specialities in neobanking, crypto, eCommerce and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) sectors, as well as increasingly with Web 3.0 businesses, SEON is well-equipped to deal with the demands of modern online fraud prevention. Since its formation, the company has served over 5,000 merchants and reviewed over 1 billion transactions. In turn, this has helped to save its customers more than €50 million in potentially fraudulent transactions. 

For more information about SEON, please visit: www.seon.io 

The Bank of Canada has teamed up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a twelve-month research project on central bank digital currency. 

The project will see the central bank and the MIT Media Lab’s digital currency initiative team experiment with potential technology options to establish how a CBDC could work. 

The Bank of Canada has spent several years working with the country's commercial lenders to explore the construction of a DLT-based CBDC. Last year, it indicated that its work on a future digital loonie has increased because of the Covid-19 outbreak and its impact on currency usage. 

Nevertheless, the bank continues to assert that "no decision has been made" on whether to roll out a CBDC. 

For the MIT team, the endeavor will build on research carried done with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. 

This ongoing endeavor, has already produced research revealing a system capable of handling 1.7 million transactions a second, without employing distributed ledger technology.

Silent Eight, an AI-based financial crime compliance service, has closed a $40 million Series B fundraising round led by HSBC Ventures, the firm's latest customer. 

The financing was led by TYH Ventures, with participation from OTB Ventures, Wavemaker Partners, Standard Chartered's SC Ventures, Aglaia, and Koh Boon Hwee, chairman and general partner of Altara Ventures. Silent Eight's AI technology for financial crime conducts real-time investigations into any questionable transaction, beneficiary, or consumer. 

"HSBC Ventures is satisfied with the progress made by Silent Eight's AI technology," says HSBC Ventures' Ore Adeyemi. "We look forward to using this investment to further deepen our cooperation." 

Silent Eight has amassed a total of $55 million to date. The new round increases the firm's total valuation to four times its October 2020 level. Revenue has increased sixfold and headcount has tripled in that time. With the additional capital, the company anticipates hiring around 150 data scientists, developers, and engineers in 2022.

LMAX Group, the leading operator of institutional exchanges for FX and cryptocurrency trading, has partnered with SIX, one of Europe’s leading operators of Financial Market Infrastructures, to launch cash-settled, centrally cleared crypto-asset futures (“crypto futures”).

The launch is expected in Q3 2022, pending regulatory approval, and will initially include centrally cleared USD settled Bitcoin and Ethereum futures, trading 23 hours, five days a week, with the full product roll out to be extended to 24/7 trading.

Commenting on the launch, David Mercer, CEO of LMAX Group, said: “As institutional adoption of crypto trading continues to increase, we will complete our offering by adding crypto futures to our portfolio through this partnership. Our global institutional client base, including 35 top tier banks already trading with LMAX Group, will benefit from the strength of our proven and tested exchange trading technology, combined with the secure clearing connectivity of SIX. The crypto futures market is three times bigger than spot and by offering access to deep institutional liquidity, we are providing a significant market entry opportunity as crypto and blockchain finance evolves. This pioneering solution will close the gap, enabling round-the-clock crypto futures trading, seven days/week, meeting the needs of a rapidly growing number of institutional participants.”

Javier Hernani, Head Securities Services, SIX commented: “This is a major milestone for SIX from several perspectives. We are making substantial progress according to our digital asset clearing strategy and are expanding our portfolio of cleared asset classes. At the same time, we have the opportunity to bring our Swiss and Spanish infrastructure strengths together by having a diverse project team with experts from both sides. We are creating a strong SIX Clearing services powerhouse that will benefit all our customers. We are excited to partner with LMAX Group and be part of this ground-breaking initiative.”

The partnership, which leverages the expertise of two leading market players, is set to deliver a superior crypto offering, and is expected to receive immediate uptake from existing LMAX Group clients as the digital asset ecosystem continues to institutionalise and demand for robust trading infrastructure grows. As digital assets and traditional capital markets increasingly converge, LMAX Group sees perpetual trading at the forefront of transitioning to complete open market access, ensuring more efficient functioning of capital markets and increasing levels of global trade.

6th Annual FinTech Breakthrough Awards recognized the company for its stand out solutions tailored to the needs of small businesses across the nation

VizyPay, an industry-leading payment processing company for small businesses, today announces it was named Best Small Business Payments Solution by the 2022 FinTech Breakthrough Awards, an annual awards program that recognizes technologies and companies driving innovation and exemplifying the best in FinTech technology solutions.

VizyPay won thanks to its unique Cash Discount Program (CDP), a flexible and transparent service that empowers small businesses to take control of their credit card processing, eliminate unpredictable fees and save money. Offered at a low month-to-month subscription, CDP allows for unlimited credit card transactions and offsets up to 100% of processing fees. CDP helps businesses build the cost of processing into their pricing, allowing them to maintain the same profit margin on every sale regardless of payment type. To make CDP easily accessible to any merchant using a Clover point-of-sale (POS) system, VizyPay launched the first Cash Discount app for Clover POS systems, currently available on the Clover App Market. The app is free for VizyPay CDP customers and available to non-customers for $14.99/month-to-month, allowing any business to implement a true cash discount program. To date, CDP has saved businesses more than $25 million.

“At its core, CDP is designed with small businesses in mind,” said CEO and Founder Austin Mac Nab. “We’re honored to be recognized as the Best Small Business Payments Solution. This award showcases our dedication to continually improving and innovating our current offerings on top of developing new solutions for the small business owner.”

All FinTech Breakthrough Award nominations were evaluated by an independent panel of experts within the financial services and technology industries, with the winning products and companies selected based on a variety of criteria, including most innovative and technologically advanced products and services. For a full list of 2022 FinTech Breakthrough Award winners: www.fintechbreakthrough.com/2022-winners

New Digital Currencies 2022 playbook also shows surge in crypto app usage outpaces stock trading apps

Mobile marketing analytics platform Adjust and app intelligence provider Apptopia today released its Fintech Deep Dive: Digital Currencies 2022 Playbook, a look at the key drivers of cryptocurrency app adoption in 2021. The report reveals that global crypto app growth skyrocketed 902% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2021, with standout markets by growth rates being the U.S. (645%), APAC (475%), EMEA (284%) and LATAM (182%).

“With such exponential growth and an exceptionally engaged user base offering high lifetime value, crypto mobile apps have become a key gateway for access to the crypto economy,” said Simon “Bobby” Dussart, CEO of Adjust. “As competition for users heats up, crypto and fintech apps will need to maximize their user acquisition efforts, optimize their ad spend, and accurately measure every stage of the user journey.”

Adjust and Apptopia’s Digital Currencies playbook outlines how crypto exchange apps have performed, as well as trends in user engagement of crypto apps compared to stock trading apps. It also provides actionable insights on how crypto apps can attract and retain high lifetime value users.

Key findings include:

●      Crypto apps saw massive user growth globally in 2021 as app installs surged past  400% YoY. The most notable rise in installs took place in Q4 2021 — a 106% YoY increase following a 49% drop in downloads from Q2 to Q3.

●      Crypto apps beat stock trading apps on user engagement. Crypto apps outperformed stock trading apps on user engagement metrics such as session lengths, sessions per user per day, retention rates, and stickiness, indicating an engaged and high-retention user base for crypto apps.

●      Usage metrics correlate with crypto market performance. New market highs correlate with increased user installs and sessions. Sessions rose 63.4% from 2019 to 2020 (mirroring growth in installs), before seeing 567.4% growth in sessions in 2021.  

"Our data shows a massive increase in demand for crypto wallets and exchanges over the past year,” added Adam Blacker, VP, Insights at Apptopia. “We expect to continue to see crypto apps rise in parallel with digital currency.”

Top Crypto Apps in 2021

According to data by Apptopia, the most downloaded crypto app in 2021 was Binance, increasing its ranking from the third most downloaded app in 2020. Approximately 20% of Binance's downloads in 2021 came from Turkey and about 9% came from the U.S. Following closely behind as the second most downloaded app was Crypto.com. Coinbase, which was formerly the most downloaded crypto app of 2020, came in third for 2021. The fourth and fifth most downloaded were Trust and MetaMask, respectively. 

For additional insights, the full Digital Currencies playbook is available for download here.