General News

February 6, 2024 @ 9:40 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

The American Fintech Council (AFC), an industry association representing fintech companies and banks, this week announced that earned wage access (EWA) provider ZayZoon has become its newest member. An EWA provider for small and mid-sized businesses, ZayZoon joins a growing group of diverse industry-leading EWA… Read More

February 6, 2024 @ 8:44 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Phasecraft – the startup led by top academics developing world-leading quantum algorithms – has won a £1.2 million UK Government contract as part of the UK’s Quantum Catalyst Fund. Phase One of the Fund saw Phasecraft awarded “a contract for a feasibility study to explore… Read More

February 6, 2024 @ 8:37 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Cross River Bank, a technology infrastructure provider that offers embedded financial solutions, announced that its Principal Finance Group closed $825 million of capital commitments in 2023. The new investments, which “include senior secured credit facilities as well as programmatic asset purchase arrangements, provide specialty finance… Read More

February 5, 2024 @ 11:24 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Binance, which agreed to a massive $4.3 billion+ settlement with US regulators yet continues to face major operational challenges globally,  is pleased to welcome back their former Senior Vice President of Compliance Steve Christie, who is taking on the role of Deputy Chief Compliance Officer… Read More

February 5, 2024 @ 6:11 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

The latest data breach yearly recap by Surfshark shows that 300 million accounts were breached in 2023, with the United States ranking first with 97 million breaches. Russia takes second place with 79 million. France (10M), Spain (8M) and India (5M) are far behind in… Read More

February 4, 2024 @ 1:25 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Businesses in the United Kingdom have reportedly entered the new year with renewed positivity as overall confidence rose to the highest level for nearly two years. The Barometer – which measures businesses’ confidence by assessing their trading prospects and optimism in the economy – shows… Read More

February 2, 2024 @ 2:44 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Small business owners are optimistic about the future, with 88% indicating the financial state of their individual businesses is about the same or better off than a year ago, which should bode well for merchant services providers. According to the J.D. Power 2024 U.S. Merchant… Read More

February 2, 2024 @ 2:31 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Corvus Insurance, the cyber underwriter powered by a proprietary AI-driven cyber risk platform, today released its Q4 2023 Ransomware Report. Featuring data collected from ransomware leak sites, the report shows “that while Q4 attacks were down slightly from Q3 2023, ransomware activity for the year… Read More

February 2, 2024 @ 7:43 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The “explosion” of generative AI [artificial intelligence] saves the AI sector from the worst of the venture drought, according to an update from CBInsights. The CBInsights team notes that although AI venture activity slowed down in 2023, the sector — and particularly, generative AI —… Read More

February 1, 2024 @ 7:58 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Banco Santander has announced the appointment of Petri Nikkilä as the new global CEO of Openbank and head of the Digital Consumer Bank’s non-auto consumer business. Mr. Nikkilä succeeds Ezequiel Szafir, who “was Openbank’s CEO until last year, and will report to Daniel Barriuso, head… Read More

February 1, 2024 @ 12:47 pm By JD Alois  |  

Following the exit of Mica Fisher, NC3 [National Coalition for Community Capital] has announced a new Executive Director, Katharine Gilman. Prior to joining NC3, Gilman was the Director of Operations at the Ecology Learning Center, where she helped to establish a public charter high school… Read More

February 1, 2024 @ 8:17 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Bank of Ireland has announced an investment of more than €60 million in a range of branch improvements, including the Bank’s largest single investment in ATMs in the last decade. Starting later this year, a new fleet of ATMs will “be rolled out to all… Read More

January 31, 2024 @ 2:47 pm By JD Alois  |  

The US Federal Reserve announced that it has decided to hold benchmark rates steady at a rate of 5.25% to 5.5% today, as the Wall anticipated. The statement issued by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) indicated that job gains have moderated since early last… Read More

January 31, 2024 @ 8:53 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Tandem, a UK digital bank, has announced the appointment of Maria Khan, as Director of Product and Digital, and Chris Parker, as Head of Marketing. As Director of Product and Digital, Maria leads “the development of Tandem’s exciting digital offering, working with the team to… Read More

January 30, 2024 @ 7:47 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The Prince’s Trust NatWest Youth Index 2024, released recently, finds half (49 per cent) of 16–25-year-olds in the UK think the cost of living crisis has had a worse impact on their life than the pandemic. As noted by the Natwest Group, it shows young… Read More

January 29, 2024 @ 8:12 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Construction activity and a strong job market have helped South Australia ascend to the top of the economic performance leaderboard, according to CommSec’s quarterly State of the States report. This is the first time South Australia has reportedly “ranked No.1 in the report’s 15-year history.”… Read More

January 29, 2024 @ 8:15 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Mid-market private equity investment activity in the UK declined by 10% in 2023, as challenging macroeconomic conditions presented few glimmers of hope for recovery, according to KPMG UK’s Mid-Market Private Equity report. The firm’s most recent M&A study “has revealed that 675 mid-market transactions were… Read More

January 29, 2024 @ 8:04 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Bank of Ireland credit and debit card data for the first two weeks of January reveals that ‘New Year, New You’ spending in gyms and sports clubs shot upwards “compared to last January.” As noted in the update shared by the Bank of Ireland, many… Read More

January 28, 2024 @ 11:29 am By Omar Faridi  |  

ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW), the digital workflow company making the world work better for everyone, announced today a five-year strategic alliance with Visa, a digital payments provider, to transform payment services. The initial phase includes “the launch of ServiceNow Disputes Management, Built with Visa—a single, connected… Read More

January 27, 2024 @ 4:35 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

SEON, the end-to-end fraud prevention and AML platform helping companies mitigate fraud and safeguard against revenue threats, announced the expansion of its executive leadership with the appointment of Björn Heckel as Chief Technology Officer. With more than 20 years of experience as a software engineering… Read More