News
The first biometric fingerprint credit card issued by a UK bank has begun its three-month national trial.
The bank has previously piloted biometric debit cards, but this will be the first-time credit cards have been issued. NatWest is piloting cutting-edge, biometric fingerprint technology with 150 customers, in partnership with Mastercard and Gemalto.
The biometric credit cards will offer contactless payments using fingerprint verification for transactions up to £100, an increase on the current £30 limit.
As well as retaining contactless functionality, the fully integrated card can be used as normal in ATMs and for online shopping.
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77% of UK workers admit that they have never received any form of cyber skills training from their employer, according to a new study from Centrify, a provider of cloud-ready Zero Trust Privilege to secure modern enterprises.
The news comes at the start of European Union’s CyberSecMonth, designed to raise awareness of cybersecurity threats, promote cybersecurity among citizens and organisations; and provide resources to protect themselves online, through education and sharing of good practices.
The survey of 2000 UK workers in professional services, conducted by independent survey company Censuswide, also found that 27% of workers use the same password for multiple accounts, including work email and social media, putting both their personal security and that of their company at risk from hackers.
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Rapyd, a London-based fintech-as-a-service provider, raised $100m in financing.
The round was led by Oak HC/FT with participation from Tiger Global, Coatue, General Catalyst, Target Global, Stripe and Entrée Capital.
Rapyd’s global platform provides a number of capabilities including:
- The ability to accept cash, bank transfers, e-wallets, and local debit card payments in over 100 countries
- Disbursements in over 170 countries
- Multi-currency settlement to a single file across 65 currencies
- Advanced real-time foreign exchange services, that on average, provide a lower cost to clients and their consumers, and are more profitable, due to advanced FX hedging technology
- Comprehensive global Know Your Customer (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML), and Counter Financing Terrorism (CFT) services
The company, which raised $40m in Series B financing earlier this year, intends to use the funds to build out its platform and to further build out the Rapyd Global Payment Network.
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Challenger bank bunq is on a path of rapid growth as has announced its launch in the UK. Following successful launches in Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, France, Ireland and Belgium, European challenger bank bunq is now available in all European markets.
bunq now offers British users bunq Premium, which makes managing your money and cards easy. Users get a completely mobile banking experience with up to 25 fully functional Euro bank accounts and a set of Maestro and Mastercard debit and credit cards.
The European challenger bank is also the first bank in the world that lets its users decide where their funds are stored and how they are used.
bunq is also introducing its Travel Card, a Mastercard credit card introduced at the beginning of this year, in the UK.
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The cost of data breaches will rise from $3 trillion each year to over $5 trillion in 2024, an average annual growth of 11%, according to new findings by Juniper Research.
This will primarily be driven by increasing fines for data breaches as regulation tightens, as well as a greater proportion of business lost as enterprises become more dependent on the digital realm.
Cybercrime is increasingly sophisticated; the report anticipates that cybercriminals will use AI which will learn the behaviour of security systems in a similar way to how cybersecurity firms currently employ the technology to detect abnormal behaviour.
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Depop, the secondhand fashion marketplace for millennials, has revealed ambitions international expansion plans that could see it launch further across Europe and Asia in the near future.
The eight-year-old company recently raised £50 million in a Series C funding round led by General Atlantic. The investment was mainly aimed at accelerating the app’s growth in the US, but a portion of the funds will also be used to expand further across Europe and Asia
Last year, the business posted an impressive 85% increase in sales, and double-digit growth is set to continue this year, according to the group.
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Klarna, a payments provider, continues its bid to increase its UK customer base with the launch of a major ad campaign in partnership with retail brands including Asos, JD and Superdry. With giant posters on London underground platforms, digital screens along tube escalators, and advertising on the sides of buses, the campaign aims to promote the company’s “smooth retail services”.
The Swedish company had over 12m transactions in the UK in the past year, and in August alone, more than 100,000 UK shoppers downloaded its app. The UK is a strong market for the business given the size of the online shopping market and the fast pace of the high street fashion industry.
Further capitalising on the UK fashion economy, Klarna is now partnering with retailers to offer its range of products in store as well as online. Major partners include Mothercare, Thomas Sabo and iSmash.
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Moneyfarm, a Milan and London-based digital wealth management company, raised £36M in Series C funding.
The round was led by Poste Italiane with participation from Allianz Asset Management.
The company intends to use the funds to roll out its wealth management services for investors across Europe.
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Wematch, a fintech firm that provides technology which augments how traders at banks match, negotiate and manage trades, has received investment from J.P. Morgan and Societe Generale.
Wematch delivers the benefits of the newest web technologies to traders at banks, improving the matching and negotiation process, cutting costs for banks and increasing efficiency and reducing conduct risk for traders. The fintech firm now has 40 banks and more than 750 traders using it.
Wematch came through J.P. Morgan’s In-Residence Programme and Societe Generale’s Global Markets Incubator to foster the expansion of the fintech’s offer across asset classes and instruments.
The funding takes J.P. Morgan’s and Societe Generale’s relationship with Wematch from users to investors, with the banks already active on Wematch across all existing platforms.
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Subscription boxes continue to win new fans in the UK and while food delivery is the most popular product category, beauty is in second place with the channel becoming an important one for beauty product sales, especially to young consumers.
Delivery specialist Whistl surveyed 1,000 consumers and found 53% have a food box subscription, with Graze the most popular service. But a hefty 31% of them also have a beauty subscription, and it’s perhaps no surprise that Birchbox is in the lead here, although Glossybox comes in fourth place and Dollar Shave Club is at number nine.
But fashion/clothing has made less of an impact in this channel, and scores only 8% to put it in joint eighth place.
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