Pending U.K. legislation could boost small businesses’ access to the government’s massive pool of procurement money. The Procurement Bill is designed to make it easier for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to capture more of the country’s $366 billion the government spends on goods and...
BNP Paribas is considering options to restructure its consumer finance department. The French bank has submitted ideas for a major overhaul of the division to unions, confirming to Reuters Friday (Jan. 6) that “BNP Paribas Personal Finance presented its strategic reflections to the social partners...
The U.K. is upgrading its instant payment system to incorporate a modern ISO 20022-compliant architecture. Known as the New Payment Architecture (NPA), the initial plan is to upgrade the existing Faster Payments real-time rails, with an option to include the older Bacs system in the...
As small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and freelancers extend their global eCommerce reach, making payments should be as easy as sending an email. “Everyone wants to get paid or be paid by someone else,” Anand Bindumadhavan, vice president of global banking at Payoneer, told PYMNTS...
The U.K. pensions dashboard program has been delayed by technical setbacks. The nation’s Money and Pensions Service (MAPS) has fallen behind schedule with its pre-launch testing, according to a Tuesday (Dec. 3) report from The Times. Although there has been no official announcement on the...
Ant Group’s consumer finance arm is set to more than double in size. Last week saw the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission approve an application by Ant to expand the registered capital held by Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance from 8 billion yuan to 18.5...
The growth of business and consumer lending in the eurozone slowed in November. According to the latest figures from the European Central Bank (ECB) published on Thursday (Dec. 29), the annual growth rate of adjusted loans to nonfinancial corporations decreased to 8.4% in November from...
The Ukraine economy is beating expectations nearly a year into the war. The country’s economic growth is expected to level off or even grow as much as 1% in 2023 after dropping 30% this year, Bloomberg reported Tuesday (Dec. 27). In addition, the inflation rate...
Foreign exchange (FX) volatility presents challenges for cross-border payments, but digital multi-currency wallets offer a solution. According to Ola Oyetayo, CEO at B2B cross-border FX and payments enabler Verto, several of their customers are concerned about how the “macro” will impact them on a 6-month...