U.K.

The country's central bank cited geopolitical uncertainty and the increased reliance on digital payments as a reason to focus on offline payments as a backup. Also, a look at U.K. bank outages and other news in American Banker's global payments and fintech roundup.

Visa and Mastercard have long been in legal battles over payment fees, with out-of-court agreements proving elusive.

Alison Rose stepped down after the British government, the UK lender's largest shareholder, signaled she had lost its confidence after a political dustup.

Nikhil Rathi, CEO of Britain's Financial Conduct Authority, said the recent cryptocurrency market crash has underscored the need for regulation on both sides of the Atlantic.

While pandemic restrictions cloud the sector's outlook, the London-based payment and fintech company is making hotel booking and other services part of its financial super app strategy.

Goldman Sachs Group has begun offering cash management and treasury services in the U.K. as it builds out its new transaction-banking arm.

Rapyd's new venture capital arm seeks companies that can develop or benefit from an international identity verification system.

The U.K.'s central bank says stablecoins should follow the same rules as traditional bank deposits.

Small businesses are upset at Visa and Mastercard's proposal to raise rates on cross-border payments initiated online, now that the European Commission's caps on credit and debit fees no longer apply in the U.K.

Railsbank and Plaid have formed a strategic partnership enabling any company in the U.K. to directly embed open banking-style payments into digital flows.