Category: FinTech
iZettle launches payment card reader made from fishing nets
Financial technology firm iZettle has unveiled a card reader for small businesses made from recycled ocean plastic. The PayPal-owned company has launched the Ocean Reader, which it says is 75% made from old fishing nets and ropes collected from the North and Baltic Seas. iZettle said the project has already seen the firm remove more…
PayPal fined £250,000 over iZettle deal
Online payments giant PayPal has been fined £250,000 by Britain’s competition watchdog for failing to keep it and iZettle separate in the UK while an investigation was carried out into their merger. US-based PayPal had already bought Sweden’s iZettle in September 2018 for $2.2 billion (£1.7 billion), but the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) put…
UK tech firms secure record foreign investment
Investment in the UK tech sector has continued to surge, as British firms secured more foreign funding in the first seven months of 2019 than during the whole of 2018, according to new research. Fast-growing UK tech companies secured a “staggering” 6.7 billion US dollars (£5.5 billion) in investment in the period to July, according…
Over a third of people ‘would prefer fast response from chatbot about finances’
More than third of financial services customers would prefer an instant response from a chatbot to waiting to speak to a human, a survey suggests. Some 35% would prefer an immediate response from a chatbot computer programme, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to mimic conversation, rather than waiting for a person to respond to their…
Mobile banking ‘to be more popular than high street by 2021’
Mobile banking is set to overtake high street bank branches by 2021 in terms of popularity, according to projections. Data experts Caci said growing numbers of people owning a smartphone is partly behind the increase. It said mobile banking’s growth is now being fuelled by the increasing adoption of the technology by older generations, in…
Gig economy insurance firm Zego raises £33m for expansion
A tech firm that offers insurance to gig economy workers like Deliveroo riders and Uber drivers has raised 42 million US dollars (£33 million) in funding, the company said. Zego will use the cash to double its workforce from 75 to 150 to take advantage of the growing market, as more workers enter the gig…
Santander introduces Phone ID and Voice ID for telephone banking customers
Santander customers will no longer need to remember and key in security numbers when accessing telephone banking, as the bank introduces voice and phone recognition technology. Telephone banking customers will be offered the option of verifying their identity through technology which will recognise their voice and where they are calling from. Santander is doing a…
HSBC’s voice recognition technology has saved bank £300 million in fraud
Technology which enables HSBC customers to access bank accounts using their voice as a password has prevented over £300 million falling into the hands of fraudsters since it launched in the UK, claims the bank. More than 1.6 million HSBC customers across the UK now use VoiceID, which launched in 2016. HSBC said attempted frauds…
Big Issue trials ‘world’s first resellable’ magazine with digital bank Monzo
The Big Issue is launching trials of a new system turning it into what is believed to be the world’s first “resellable” magazine. A scannable QR code allows readers to pass the magazine to a friend, who can scan the code to pay for it again. The scheme, called Pay It Forward, aims to help…
One in three card payments uses contactless technology
Around 20 million “tap and go” payments took place every day last year – meaning one in three card transactions is now contactless, figures from trade association UK Finance show. It said contactless card spending surged by nearly a third in 2018 year-on-year. Customers across the UK spent a total of £69 billion using contactless…
