Capital.com, the high-growth trading and investing platform empowering everyone to trade responsibly, has launched a dedicated stock dealing account for clients in the UK and Europe. The new account, labeled Capital.com Invest, enables customers to easily and securely invest in global stocks without paying any commission.

New and existing customers will be able to invest their capital in over one thousand popular stocks from the US and Europe. Clients are not charged a commission fee when they make an investment, or when they deposit and withdraw funds from their stock dealing account.

Stock prices are quoted directly from the exchange, further ensuring clients are not charged any additional price spreads or mark-ups. Capital.com Invest will initially be made available to clients in the UK, France and Germany before it is gradually rolled out to clients across other European countries. 

This launch is Capital.com’s response to evolving investment preferences and the retail market’s gradual shift towards direct stock investments. In the first quarter of 2021, Capital.com saw a 233 percent increase in new customer accounts compared to the previous quarter. Over the same period, financial derivatives trading activity in popular stocks such as AMC, Tesla and Gamestop also picked up significantly.

In Q1 of this year, the volume of derivatives trading on TSLA (Tesla) stocks on Capital.com grew by 126 percent while trading on Gamestop (GME) at the height of its rally, between November 2020 to March 2021, grew by 23,000 percent. In Q2, the volume of derivatives trades on AMC grew 192% from the previous quarter.

“Our data clearly demonstrates that retail investors are taking advantage of the global rally in equity markets. To enable our clients to diversify beyond derivatives trading and to allow them to take a more long-term investment view, we enabled commission-free stock dealing on Capital.com. With no hidden costs or mark-ups and with no fees to pay on deposits or withdrawals, we offer investors a truly commission-free stock dealing experience. This means our clients can confidently invest directly in an underlying stock without incurring any additional costs or expenses,” said Jonathan Squires, Chief Executive Officer at Capital.com.

The launch of the Capital.com stocks dealing account is further evidence of the company’s commitment to lower the entry barriers to financial markets and to provide its clients with a secure, low-friction solution that is transparently priced and responsive to customer needs.

Commenting on today’s announcement, Viktor Prokopenya, a founding investor, said: “Capital.com has demonstrated its leading position in the fintech space by building a high-growth global business around its technology-first trading platform with more than 2 million registered clients. Always responsive to market changes and putting its clients at the heart of the business, Capital.com’s commission-free stock dealing capabilities will strengthen the company’s position as one of Europe’s fastest growing investment trading platforms”

To further support clients in their investment journey and to enable more people to participate in financial markets responsibly and confidently, Capital.com provides a wide range of educational support resources on its platform, at no extra cost.

“With the goal of improving clients' trading performance through education, we offer our clients a convenient educational app that they can use on the go. Investmate is an all-in-one app to learn finance. We have designed a rich and free toolkit that includes varied learning materials, 30+ courses include short lessons that take as little as 3 minutes to complete,” added 

The Capital.com platform is also fitted with a demo site, regular news feed, as well as more than 5,000 pages of intelligent financial content and analysis available on its website and through its YouTube trading channel, Capital.com TV.

The Capital.com stock dealing account is available through the platform’s mobile app, which is available on iOS and Android mobile devices. For more information, please go to www.capital.com

 ZEDRA, the fastest growing global specialist in Active Wealth, Corporate, Global Expansion and Fund Services, expects to see triple digit revenue growth in 2021, having expanded its client base by 20% between October 2020 and June 2021. ZEDRA’s headcount has also tripled in the same period with an additional 139 employees, and the firm expects to capitalise on the UK’s growing levels of wealth. Indeed the Global Wealth 2021 Boston Consulting Group report revealed that in 2020, UK wealth grew faster than the European average; 7% in the UK compared to 5% for Western Europe.

Over the past year, ZEDRA made two key acquisitions in the UK: Global Expansion firm, Fitzgerald & Law, and Institutional Pension Scheme Governance service provider, Inside Pensions. The former has expanded ZEDRA London’s offering to include a full suite of services required by multinationals when expanding overseas including accounting, tax, HR and payroll. The latter provides dedicated and experienced support and governance services to the Trustees of Pension Trusts to ensure that they adopt best practices to run their Pension Schemes efficiently and compliantly.

As of today, Inside Pensions has been rebranded to ZEDRA and the team, led by Ryan Powell and Rachael Fortescue, remains located in their St Albans Office. Rachael Fortescue stated, “We are thrilled to join forces with ZEDRA, building on what has been successful over the years at Inside Pensions to position ZEDRA’s name as a reputable Institutional Pension Scheme Governance service provider”.

Following the appointment of David Rudge as Managing Director of ZEDRA Active Wealth UK earlier this year, the firm is well placed to cater to both individual and corporate clients, with London serving as a central hub for its global offices and all of its services.

In addition to the new Global Expansion and Pension Governance services, ZEDRA provides Companies, Boards and HNWIs with a full spectrum of Corporate Services including Company Secretarial support and Private Office services. Together with the existing Trust and Estate Planning business in Manchester, the firm has a sizeable presence in the country.

With further acquisitions in the pipeline, ZEDRA plans to continue to expand its presence in the country, complementing its global strategy.

The UK is set to see a period of enormous intergenerational wealth transfer with the Baby Boomer generation having benefited from the more generous Defined Benefit Pensions, the long term rise in the stock market and the boom in house prices. Over £300 billion is set to be passed on to Generation X throughout this decade. The generational transfer of wealth presents numerous opportunities to individuals and businesses seeking ZEDRA’s estate and wealth planning solutions.

David Rudge, Managing Director, Active Wealth UK, commented: “These are exciting times. The UK has proven its resiliency despite incredible adversity and we strongly believe that the market is set to grow exponentially. ZEDRA now has an array of talent in the UK, spanning across many diverse and specialist areas. I am very excited to lead our Active Wealth proposition, bringing together all of the areas of expertise and the full suite of services to clients.”

Richard Wakeham, Head of Commercial & Solutions, UK and Offshore at ZEDRA, said: “The stage is set for a very busy period of growth for the UK and we are expecting an influx of people, business and capital. ZEDRA is primed to support that growth and has a fantastic team of specialists ready to step in and support our clients in achieving more in the UK.”

The KPMG Private Enterprise Global Tech Innovator Africa competition came to an exciting close this week and saw Africa’s future unicorn, Ukheshe, take second place among 75 other worthy entrants across Africa.

The maiden KPMG Global Tech Innovator launch showcased Africa’s place as the next global the next growth and investment frontier. Aimed at recognising the fastest-growing, most innovative technology companies across the continent, Clayton Hayward, CEO, Ukheshe, says that KPMG has created an excellent platform to meet other entrepreneurs and stakeholders: “We are delighted with our second place win and want to thank KPMG for such a great opportunity. It was made very evident throughout this experience that Africa will remain one of the key hubs of innovation and we predict that the next decade will be significant.”

According to KPMG, the technology sector is an essential contributor to the health of the local and global economy. Hayward says it is clear that opportunities for businesses like Ukheshe are now global: “There is an estimated untapped $140 trillion in the payments market. Global credit card payments, both consumer and business, make up only roughly one-tenth of the total consumer-to-business and business-to-business movement of money. Leaving the remainder of the market still untapped.”

He says Africa is the world's fastest growing market and it is ripe for technological disruption. Fintech funding has also doubled year-on-year for the last five years hitting $2.4 Billion in 2020. This creates an environment that is ripe for another unicorn according to Hayward: “There are currently six unicorns across the continent with many racing to capture a share of the fintech pie. Key to success is the rapid scaling across the continent. This is not only good for growth but an imperative for risk management to help manage regulatory or country risk in a diverse environment.”b

The recently declared African Continental Free Trade area is potentially the largest free trade zone in the world and it is expected to increase the volume of cross-border transactions dramatically: “There has never been a better time to think continent-wide and Ukheshe is destined to be one of the notable players in this scenario.”

With a vision to democratise digital financial services through the simplified accessibility of disparate technologies, Ukheshe with its API-first market disruption plan, is set to take a slice of the much-coveted unicorn pie.

Through Eclipse, Ukheshe’s locally developed universal fintech API, the company has managed to facilitate 3 telcos, 16 banks and fintechs, 9 issuers, 60 partnerships, 3000 billers, 334 029 merchants, 4 billion in processing, 2 million apps.

New research² from Yolt, the award-winning smart money app reveals today that over 3 million UK adults have been spending more than they can afford since lockdown restrictions recently began to ease. A further 18% anticipate that the national return to socialising will have a negative impact on their ability to manage their money well.

Lockdown saw the UK’s opportunities to spend severely limited, which resulted in household savings volumes increasing significantly, according to Bank of England data³. It also saw consumers make £16.6bn of net repayments on debts including credit cards and personal loans, the highest amount repaid in over three decades⁴. However, in just a few short weeks, consumer behaviour has changed significantly with the opening of non-essential retail and hospitality venues. On average since April 12th, UK adults are saving 68% less than they were in lockdown (from £223 a month to £71 a month) and spending 36% more on non-essential items (from £85 a month to £116 a month).

Half of all UK adults admit that social pressure can occasionally be the root cause of their overspending (51%). More than one in 10 people find it hard to tell friends when they can’t afford something (12%) and a similar number find they spend more when they are with friends who have more money than they do.

Pauline van Brakel, Chief Product Officer at Yolt, comments: “It’s natural as lockdown restrictions ease to want to celebrate and catch up on lost time with loved ones. However, it’s important that people continue to keep a close eye on their money management and don’t spend more than they can afford. Our research shows that people often struggle to say no when spending in social situations and can feel pressured, particularly amongst friends that have more disposable income than they do.

“Many people in the UK are still feeling financially stretched due to the economic impact of Covid-19 and we may see this group grow as we begin to see government support schemes such as furlough due to come to an end in the coming months. It’s important to be sensitive to our friends and families during this time and not place undue pressure on people to make financial commitments that might put them in the red.

“As we inch closer to normality, many people will be out of practice for how best to manage their money in social situations. At Yolt, our recently launched evolution of the app is designed to help you manage your finances and keep a close eye on both your spending behaviours and your savings habits.”

The World Federation of Exchanges (“The WFE”), the global industry group for exchanges and CCPs, today published its response to the European Banking Authority (EBA) concerning recognition of developed equity markets.  In responding to the EBA, the WFE is seeking to promote market-based finance globally, by advocating for proportionate and predictable capital treatment for equity-market risk. 

The WFE proposes that the favourable designation of ‘advanced-economy’ equity market in the draft EBA Regulatory Technical Standards be linked to objective criteria that are relevant to positions in the ‘trading book’. For example, it may be desirable to use a metric comparing the liquidity and volatility of a particular country to a global index. This is important for all firms not using internal models, as the standardised approach should avoid introducing distortions through arbitrary bucketing of countries.

Adding more countries to the advanced economy list, subject to their meeting appropriate criteria, would mean that brokers with operations in any given country will better be able to serve the needs of investors outside that country, allowing those investors to benefit from its economic growth and to diversify portfolios.

Nandini Sukumar, Chief Executive Officer of the WFE, said: “The list of countries included in the Basel approach does not appear to have a clear, risk-based methodology behind it. We hope the EBA will take this opportunity to implement the bank capital regime in the EU in such a way that all countries can understand the yardstick against which they are being judged for these purposes.”

Please click here to read the paper in full.  

• FCA authorisation ensures mmob can help banks and large established fintechs to unlock the benefits of open and embedded finance at pace and scale.
• By unifying customer data mmob can help its commercial partners to drive retention and growth through the optimisation of third party service selection and provision.
• Consent driven user data to propel frictionless native experiences, leveraging data to provide relevant financial products and services.

Open finance partnership platform, mmob, has taken a major step toward the delivery of mainstream open finance adoption following its FCA authorisation for Payment and Account Information Service Provision. The approval from the UK’s financial regulator validates mmob’s unique business model and feature-rich embedded finance product suite, which has been engineered to enable partnerships between digital service providers to thrive.

By greenlighting the secure processing and seamless sharing of customers' personal and account information, the FCA authorisation gives mmob license to push the boundaries of open finance. mmob can now enable its growing portfolio of global financial institutions and fintechs to select and rapidly rollout third party products and services that compliment and help complete their core propositions. 

The consent-driven customer data will deliver unrivalled insights which mmob’s partners can use to better determine what their customers want and pinpoint the additional services that are worth their time and investment. In addition, by pulling down customer data from mmob’s intelligence layer, brands can automate key activities that have previously created friction and hindered the adoption of value-added services. These include entering card details, setting up direct debits, and prepopulating application forms. 

“We exist to solve the problems surrounding partnerships,” said Irfan Khan, CEO, mmob. “Whilst there is a strong appetite to drive innovation, onboarding valuable third party services is typically slow and can feel steeped in risk. By utilising the data at their fingertips, our partners will gain the insight needed to create tailored, seamless experiences that increase retention and service stickiness, and reduce the abandoned baskets that typically accompany less sophisticated user journeys.”

mmob’s open finance platform eliminates the complexity, time, and resources financial service providers need in order to select and deploy partner-driven services. Through its API, banks and large established fintechs can quickly and easily connect to mmob’s network of third party partners and gain rapid access to new verticals, using one line of code. 

“mmob’s intelligent platform ensures partnerships between our commercial partners and network of third party service providers are simple to set up, equitable and rewarding for everyone involved in the ecosystem. The regulatory approval is an important validation of our approach and critical to our delivering value. With it, we now have everything we need to ensure partnerships thrive by utilising customer data in a way that benefits both our partners and their users,” said Khan.

Commenting on a rangebound dollar and Treasury yields down following Nonfarm Payrolls data, Ali Jaffari, Head of North American Capital Markets for Validus Risk Management, said: “A salient US data point this morning as US Nonfarm Payrolls for the month of June surprised to the upside with an increase of 850K vs a consensus of 720K. However, with FX markets largely pricing this in, we are not seeing significant moves as a result, and the dollar index remains largely range bound. Meanwhile, Treasury yields are down 2-3bps on the release, although with the key labor force participation rate unchanged at 61.6%, we’d expect the recent rangebound trend to continue.
“Employment data remains a key focus for the Fed and a continued convergence to pre-pandemic levels will certainly drive the thinking on tapering discussions and supports a build in US rate hike expectations. However, with two more job prints until the Sep FOMC, the Fed will likely hold off until there is a clear view on the return of labor force supply.
“Finally, with net USD positioning still short, we can see a slight dollar increase in the near term as the pace of short covering picks up.”