CORPORATE ACTIVITY

• TCS in running to take over running of UK’s Faster Payments, A formal decision has yet to be made by regulators, although several people close to the process said they understood that TCS had edged ahead of the incumbent Vocalink.
• Societe Generale to cut 900 jobs in France as part of a cost saving programme.
• Worldline plans to reduce its workforce by 8% as part of its cost reduction plan, which amounts to 1400 jobs.

DIGITAL, RETAIL & ‘Neo’ BANKING

• HSBC installs first of ten ‘Cash Pods’ in town with no bank branches. Cash Pods enable all residents and businesses to withdraw cash and allow HSBC UK customers to deposit cash. The machine also enables customers to check their account balance, print mini-statements, activate a card and reset the PIN, and make payments linked to their HSBC UK credit card.

EPC/SEPA

• European Parliament adopts new instant money transfer rules to ensure that transferred funds arrive immediately in bank accounts across the EU. The objective of the new regulation is to eliminate delays in fund transfers for retail clients and businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and to improve the security of transactions.

EMBEDDED FINANCE

• Citi taps ChargeAfter for POS instalment loan product – Citi Pay will now be powered by ChargeAfter. Citi Pay products let online merchants integrate a digital-only credit card and a monthly instalment loan option into their point-of-sale experience.

FINTECHS

• UK fintech investment down 34% in 2023

FRAUD & CYBERSECURITY

• In their scam data for 2023, Revolut reveals majority of all its reported crime cases in the UK started on Meta platforms.

OPEN BANKING & PSD2

• Natwest becomes first bank accepted into UK Open Banking DPS, they are now a supplier on the CCS new Dynamic Purchasing System for Open Banking. All UK public sector entities, such as the central government, local authorities, NHS, schools, charities, and public administrations will be able to access the DPS.