Barclays has launched a new fintech focused unit to help develop new business lines for the bank; Barclays UK Ventures will work with fintech firms through partnerships or by taking equity stakes, helping the bank make further inroads into fintech. Source.
clients about starting a crypto trading desk; no plans are set yet but the bank is talking to clients, including institutional clients, about opening the desk as more banks explore the emerging market. Source.
New regulations in Europe are set to effect U.S. banks that serve EU based customers. Banks need to understand what data is shareable and what new protocols to put in pace before the regulations take place in May. Source.
Nuggets has been chosen by the UK government and the Mayor of London to embark on two trade missions to China this year. The missions are a way to build new business opportunities between Britain and China. Source.
The list covers all industries, but includes the fastest growing financial services businesses in Europe; TransferWise came in at #24, reporting 3,392% revenue growth from 2013-2016; the company hired 670 people over the same time period. Source
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has told asset managers that they need to focus more on customer interests and stop the bad behavior; the rules come after a more than 2 year investigation into the sector; Christopher Woolard, executive director of strategy and competition at the FCA, tells the FT, “Today’s announcements are an important part of a package of measures that, combined, aim to achieve a fair, transparent, open and accountable market.”; some of the new rules include hiring independent directors, profits from moving money from one fund to another will be mostly banned and they will need to switch investors to the cheapest version of their funds. Source.
UK based Pia, personal investment assistant, is testing their new aggregator platform to help people find the best digital wealth advisor; “We spent time speaking to people who said we need to launch a product that’s far more accessible, interesting and engaging for somebody that doesn’t have a lot of investing experience and don’t know where to start,” said co-founder James Mackonochie to TearSheet; the difference between Pia and a typical aggregator site is they will use an AI powered chatbot to customize the user experience. Source.
The implementation of GDPR is around the corner as it starts in May across Europe, while most of the regulations will benefit robo advisors the compliance costs could rise significantly; users will be able to ask for all data related to them and all data a rival adviser might have on them, getting this done correctly and efficiently will take time; the customer benefits are high, startups on the other hand might end up getting a lot more costs then anticipated. Source.
Some UK fintech firms are beginning to look at opening offices in other locations across Europe to appeal to young software engineers; Brexit has hurt the market for software engineers in the UK; while the initial evidence is anecdotal UK fintech companies like Curerencycloud are beginning to feel the pressure; Mike Laven, chief executive of Currencycloud, tells the FT, “We understand passporting, regulation and compliance and it will cost us money, but we will sort that out. To me, the London fintech issue is more around having the right people and having very easy access to that.” Source.
Revolut has launched their open API for customers and they have increased their Revolut for Business service; Banking Technology reports that the company said “account owners can generate sandbox and production keys, and set whitelisted IPs as an “extra layer of security”; accounts allow users to send, hold and exchange up to 25 different currencies. Source.