Published
- 09:00 am
Visa is taking its 'access to cash' programme industry-wide, working with partner banks to offer high street retailers in remote and rural locations a fee for processing cashback transactions over the counter.
The initiative comes in the wake of a backlash over the creation of 'cash deserts' in locations where bank branches have been closed and ATMs shut down.
Vim Maru, group director, retail bank, Lloyds Banking Group, says: “Through the cashback pilot we’ve been running in partnership with Visa since early last year, we’ve improved the availability of cash in local communities, particularly in areas under-served by free-to-use ATMs and where consumers’ access to cash may be restricted.
“We’re delighted that Visa is now encouraging all of its bank partners to get behind the scheme and create a cashback system that both rewards retailers and protects access to cash.”
Visa is also looking at widening the availability of cashback services to consumers without the prerequisite of an in-store purchase.
Jeni Mundy, Visa MD, UK & Ireland, says: We want to help increase the number of options that people have to gain access to cash, helping to extend financial inclusion by enabling customers to choose how they pay - be that by cash, cards, mobile devices or other means. We also hope our scheme will encourage people in the target areas to visit their local shops at a challenging time for retailers.”
Visa is following the footsteps of Mastercard, which has already announced plans to roll out a service which will offer UK retailers a fee for processing cashback transactions over the counter,
Under the programme, local shops and businesses will from April 2020 earn a fee of 12 pence every time they dispense cash to a shopper paying with a Mastercard debit card.
Mastercard says all of its debit card issuing partners will take part in the scheme, including: Clydesdale Bank, Metro Bank, Monzo, N26, Starling Bank, Virgin Money, Yorkshire Bank and starting later this year Santander.
- 08:00 am
In a high street banking first, Barclays has announced a partnership with Nimbla, a pioneer of single invoice insurance.
Barclays’ one million SME clients will have the opportunity to benefit from the partnership, with the new ability to take out insurance against individual invoices, rather than the whole book.
With Nimbla, customers can insure a single invoice from as little as £6, compared to insuring a whole book which typically starts at around £5,000. Nimbla’s solution provides simplicity and speed and aims to disrupt a market where a sale typically takes days or weeks as opposed to a few minutes.
Nimbla graduated from the Barclays Accelerator, powered by Techstars in 2018, having built a new digital platform to give business customers a flexible and affordable way to insure individual invoices, helping protect them from insolvency and late payments.
As part of the partnership, Barclays’ relationship managers will be introducing the product to their SME clients in the North East, Cumbria, South East London and Kent, before a full roll-out later in the year. The product is available nationally to High Growth clients looking to scale their business quickly.
Flemming Bengtsen, Founder & CEO of Nimbla said: “We are excited to be working with Barclays to introduce Nimbla to their customers. All too often it is SMEs that feel the pain when other businesses fold. They are least equipped to absorb the losses and don’t have access to the tools that larger corporates do.
“Nimbla however, is as much about the opportunity as the risk. We are focused on helping SMEs grow as well as protecting their business. A survey by Barclaycard suggested 58% of smaller businesses turn away new business as they did not feel comfortable offering credit terms. That is holding them back.
“Barclays recognises that we are offering their customers the tools to take on risk, safe in the knowledge they will be paid.”
Ian Rand, CEO of Barclays Business Banking said: “Working with industry disruptors is key to our strategy going forward as we look to innovate and provide the very best products on the market to our one million small business customers.
“It’s great to be working even more closely with Nimbla, one of the entrepreneurial success stories of our Barclays Techstars Fintech accelerator programme.
“Confidence is the key to business growth, and single invoice insurance will give our SME clients who may have a small number of large invoices critical to their growth, the peace of mind that whatever may happen they will be paid for their services.
“Traditionally, trade credit insurance requires businesses to insure their entire book, but this can be very complex, expensive and inflexible, therefore making it unsuitable for SMEs.
“Our UK-wide network of relationship managers will be introducing our clients to Nimbla over the next few months, and we look forward to seeing how the pilot progresses.”
More information on how Barclays Business Banking is supporting SMEs up and down the country can be found here.
- 08:00 am
Bank of Montreal has agreed to buy New York-based trading technology outfit Clearpool Group. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Once the deal goes through, BMO says Clearpool clients will maintain access to its technology and open architecture platform.
The unit will remain independent post-acquisition, with information barriers to secure clients' confidential information.
Joseph Wald, CEO, Clearpool, says: "The acquisition positions us well to accelerate the next step in our platform development and provide the infrastructure to become a global, multi-asset class electronic trading solution."
The deal - reported to be worth around $100 million - is expected to close in the second quarter, subject to regulatory approval.
- 07:00 am
New analysis reveals the top five money transfer markets for UK residents that account for nearly one third of the total sent home
New analysis by Paysend, the UK based fintech, reveals that just five markets account for nearly one third of the total money transferred home from the UK.
Paysend analysed the latest data from the World Bank. It shows that foreign workers, international students and expats in the UK send money to more than 130 countries worldwide.
However, of the £24.2bn sent home in 2018, more than £10bn is sent to just five markets. The top 10 markets account for more than half of the total, receiving £13bn in total.
Rank Market Amount sent
1 India £3.04bn
2 Nigeria £2.97bn
3 France £1.63bn
4 Pakistan £1.44bn
5 China £1.14bn
6 Poland £1.13bn
7 Germany £990m
8 Spain £900m
9 Philippines £591m
10 Kenya £563m
Alberto Macciani, CMO of Paysend, said: “Moving money changes lives. We can see how a group of new internationalist workers, students and expats are driving the growth of money transfers in the UK. Often these transactions are life changing for those that send or receive them. Money transferred might go on education, healthcare, or to give families the ability to buy a home or start a business”.
“Rather than simply acting as a ‘hand out’, research shows that money sent back home creates independence and sustainability, for the recipient and their communities and especially for women it represents a vital source of independence and equality.”
Launched two years ago, Paysend’s card-to-card money transfer service, Global Transfers, already serves over 1.3m users worldwide.
The growth stems from the emergence of increasingly mobile segments of the work force and the continued growth of international students. These are people who live and work in one country while financially providing for, or relying on, others in another country.
Some 270m foreign workers will send $689bn back home this year, according to the World Bank. This figure is a landmark moment. Global money transfers have overtaken foreign direct investment as the biggest inflow of foreign capital into emerging economies.
Alberto Macciani continued: “Global Transfers enables our customers to move money in an instant. With fixed, transparent and low fees, more of our customers’ money is enjoyed by those they care about. We focus on making our key corridors more efficient, but at the same time we work to improve our geographic coverage to ensure we are building a true global outreach.
We’ve made what was once a laborious, slow and expensive process to pay, hold and spend money across borders now simple, quick and low cost. We will launch new services soon to make paying, holding and sending money globally even easier and cheaper.”
- 01:00 am
The biggest event on blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and mining in Europe is taking place at an innovative venue — Music Media Dome.
On April 22-23 Blockchain Life 2020 brings together 5000 participants from 70 countries. Among them: businessmen and entrepreneurs, investors, miners, blockchain developers, founders of the innovative startups, government officials and everyone who wants to know more about one of the most promising sphere.
Learn more about the forum and get an Early Bird ticket on https://blockchain-life.com/europe/en/
At Blockchain Life 2020 the following topics are highlighted: blockchain development and its implementation in business, analysis of current methods of earning in the field of cryptocurrencies, trading, and mining. An important task of the forum is to create a platform for a dialogue between the industry community and government authorities.
One of the most expected moments of Blockchain Life 2020 — exclusive speech of Ian Balina — a world-famous blogger, blockchain-entrepreneur, and investor.
Among speakers of the forum:
Ruslan Ensebaev (vice-minister of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan);
Joselite Ramirez (the National Superintendent of Crypto actives in Venezuela);
Sergei Khitrov (founder of Listing.Help and Jets.Capital);
Alexander Borodich (founder of Universa);
Rauan Khassan (VP TradingView);
Artem Kalikhov (CPO of Waves) and others.
Two days of networking with top-management of the leading companies: Binance, BitForex, Listing.Help, Trading View, Huobi, KuCoin, B2Broker, Bitmain, Gazprom Neft and many others await Blockchain Life 2020’s attendees.
Choose the best type of participation now while tickets are available: https://blockchain-life.com/europe/ru/.
Forum’s organizers: Listing.help, the world's leading listing agency on crypto exchanges, and Ideo.one, an international association. General sponsor — a cryptocurrency exchange BitForex.com.
Vikas Srivastava
Chief Revenue Officer at Integral
It’s true that banks are having to do more with less budget. Recent headlines have demonstrated we’re currently operating in an increasing cost pressured environment. see more
- 03:00 am
Open banking platform Tink and BNP Paribas today announce an extension of their partnership in Europe. In addition to Tink’s existing partnership with BNP Paribas Fortis — the retail network of BNP Paribas in Belgium — Tink is now also entering a partnership with the Italian retail network of BNP Paribas, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL). As part of the partnership, BNL will start implementing Tink’s solutions for account aggregation, payment initiation and personal finance management.
BNP Paribas and Tink’s strategic partnership is supported by a minority investment in Tink, made by Opera Tech Ventures — BNP Paribas’ venture capital arm.
Sophie Heller, COO Retail Banking & Services, BNP Paribas, said: “We position ourselves as the trusted financial companion of our customers, so that we anticipate their needs, help them understand their situation, provide them with options and implement solutions on a daily basis and at critical moments. Tink’s solutions provide value added services to enhance our customers’ personal financial management. We are thrilled to develop this strategic partnership with Tink on a European level.”
Daniel Kjellén, co-founder and CEO of Tink, added: “We are beyond excited to become the preferred technology provider of account aggregation, payment initiation and personal finance management technologies to one of the largest retail bank groups in Europe, that serves almost 18 million customers in the region. We look forward to supporting BNP Paribas on an European level.”
Since launching in Sweden in 2012, Tink has been dedicated to enabling banks, fintechs and startups to develop data-driven financial services. Through one API, Tink allows customers to access aggregated financial data, initiate payments, enrich transactions and build personal finance management tools. Today, Tink has more than 270 employees globally and is Europe’s leading open banking platform — enabling customers to connect to more than 2,500 banks that reach over 250 million bank customers across Europe.
- 02:00 am
NYMBUS, a provider of the world’s most advanced financial services platform, today announced PeoplesBank has selected NYMBUS SmartMarketing and SmartOnboarding to unify key aspects of their marketing, onboarding and CRM. The integrated business strategy will create dynamic connections for attracting new consumers while maximizing the experience and value of the institution’s existing banking customers.
A competitive force in Massachusetts’ banking landscape with assets exceeding $2.9 billion, PeoplesBank chose NYMBUS to revolutionize its marketing and onboarding efforts with a first holistic view and understanding of the entire customer journey. From lead generation and powering personalized mobile and digital campaigns, to onboarding and managing data-driven, profitable consumer relationships, NYMBUS will provide PeoplesBank with the platform to optimize their marketing investments and customer relationships.
“As our business continues to succeed and marketing requirements increase, true insight into budget effectiveness has become more challenging for our leadership team to understand,” said Tom Senecal, President and CEO of PeoplesBank. “NYMBUS will integrate key aspects of our marketing, onboarding and CRM ecosystems. Together with instant end-to-end reporting that crosses business lines, we will ultimately be setup to strategically course correct future spending for even greater outcomes.”
Built on the world-class NYMBUS SmartPlatform™ for enterprise fintech development, SmartOnboarding automates the banking customer journey that begins with a new customer and account opening process completed near instantly. SmartMarketing provides a full-service digital marketing agency that focuses exclusively on financial institutions to create their brands and manage, analyze and optimize campaign tactics. Its superior and fully-integrated CRM solution leverages insight about the consumer to include onboarding, referral marketing, multi-channel messaging, multi-tier rewards, upselling and cross selling, all by leveraging data from the institution’s core.
“NYMBUS understands that growing your financial institution and providing a superior digital banking experience are top priorities. However, you are unlikely to hit these objectives without an exceptional platform in place,” said David Mitchell, President of NYMBUS. “This is where our team is hyper-focused, offering a uniquely integrated experience across the entire customer journey and available at a budget virtually every financial institution can afford.”
- 08:00 am
WorldRemit has announced a partnership with Alipay, the world's leading payment and lifestyle platform, enabling consumers to use the WorldRemit app or website for cross-border remittances to the Alipay app, bringing more convenient and inclusive transfer services to users around the world.
“Our vision is to build a mobile-first, international payments service and we’re excited to work with Alipay as a partner,” said Tamer El-Emary, Chief Commercial Officer, WorldRemit. “The partnership will focus on innovation, customer experience and speed to market.”
In many markets around the world, the vast majority of remittances are still being sent ‘offline’. Money is taken to, and collected from a physical agent, and usually subject to high transfer fees.
With WorldRemit’s mobile first approach to digitising remittances, the collaboration between Alipay and WorldRemit will help make remittance services more convenient and affordable, especially for migrant workers globally.
The digital service will provide senders and recipients a fast, secure, and convenient way to transfer money whilst reducing the high associated costs.
The partnership with WorldRemit marks a further step in Alipay’s efforts to harness the power of digital and mobile technology, to make financial services more inclusive and affordable, especially for underserved and underbanked individuals worldwide.
“We look forward to working with WorldRemit to build a remittance service that is fast, secure, and cost effective,” said Ma Zhiguo, Alipay’s head of global remittances. “The unique mobile to mobile payment experience that this partnership delivers allows us to provide a convenient money transfer service to Alipay customers.”
- 09:00 am
Revolut, the global financial platform with over ten million customers in the UK and Europe, has today entered the UK savings market, in partnership with Flagstone, offering an easy-access savings account with a limited market-leading interest rate of 1.35% AER.
The new Savings Vault, which is FSCS protected up to £85,000 through Paragon Bank, is an addition to Revolut’s popular Vaults feature.
Savings Vaults allow Revolut customers to round-up their card payments to the nearest whole number and instantly save their spare change. Funds can also be deposited by regular and one-off payments. Revolut customers can quickly convert their existing Vault into a Savings Vault in order to start benefiting from the competitive interest rate.
As well as offering a limited best-in-class interest rate, Revolut’s Savings Vaults offer consumers true flexibility, unlike other similar products currently available in the market. There is no minimum deposit amount, withdrawals can be made at any time, and interest is paid daily.
With this account, Revolut aims to tackle the consumer loyalty trap which has existed for so long in the cash savings market. In fact, the FCA2 estimates a third (33%) of UK consumer cash is sitting in easy access savings accounts opened over five years ago which receive interest rates 0.82% lower than accounts opened more recently.
The introduction of Savings Vaults is the latest development in Revolut’s successful Vaults feature, launched in April 2018. Since then, over 2.5 million Vaults have been opened – with an average of 6,000 new Vaults created every day. To date, Revolut customers have put aside over £1 billion into their Vaults.
Nik Storonsky, Founder & CEO of Revolut said: “Interest rates have been minuscule in recent years, and this has directly impacted the options that people have when it comes to saving money. With the introduction of Savings Vaults, we can now offer our UK customers one of the most competitive rates in the country, with complete flexibility and protection.
“For us, this is another step towards our goal of democratising the financial services industry, and providing much greater value than traditional banks. As we push into 2020, we have a host of new products and services on the way that will help our customers to spend, save and manage their money more effectively.”
Savings Vaults are currently only available in GBP to Revolut Metal customers whose sole tax residency is in the UK. Revolut Premium and Standard customers in the UK will be able to access Savings Vaults at a lower rate in the coming months. Revolut will be rolling out Savings Vaults to other European markets in the near future.
Only limited deposits will be accepted at the market-leading 1.35% AER interest rate. After the limit is reached, any new deposits will receive a lesser rate.
Metal accounts are Revolut’s leading service offered via monthly subscription (£12.99 per month). As well as the free UK account available to all Revolut users, Metal customers benefit from a range of extra perks including unlimited commission free stock trading, unlimited foreign exchange, worldwide travel and medical insurance, no fee ATM withdrawals up to £600 per month, disposable virtual cards to further protect against online card fraud, airport lounge access, concierge services and a wide range of shopping discounts.
Revolut launched in 2015 with a vision of building the world’s first truly global bank and has since grown to over 10 million retail customers, and signed up over 300,000 business customers, worldwide. With Revolut, customers can spend and transfer money globally at the real exchange rate, exchange currencies in the app, manage their money with instant analytics and budgeting controls, buy and sell cryptocurrencies, buy and sell stocks commission-free, and now have the tools to save better and achieve their goals faster.
