U.K.

As Metro Bank’s problems mount, calls for Hill’s ouster as chairman are getting louder.

Sainsbury’s has launched the U.K.’s first mobile-only checkout-free grocery store, inviting comparisons to what Amazon Go is doing in the U.S. But their models are far from identical.

Facebook Inc. intends to drive a global expansion of mobile payments on WhatsApp from London, accelerating its efforts to make money off the popular messaging service.

British bank NatWest will launch a merchant acquiring service to attract small and midsize businesses in the U.K. and other countries.

Barclays has been highly active and aggressive in payments innovation on its home turf, giving it insight into which of its projects could find footing as it expands in the U.S.

Royal Bank of Scotland's top banker will leave the state-backed lender within a year, in an expected move that potentially paves the way for a senior female executive to take his role.

NatWest has started a three-month testing period of a payment card using biometric fingerprint for authorization with 200 customers, saying it is the first such card issued by a U.K. bank.

Silicon Valley, New York, London and several of China’s largest cities are the world’s leading fintech hubs, but many other locales are gunning for their crown.

The British startup OakNorth sees U.S. community and regional banks as good prospects for its lending technology.

Facebook has informed users of its P2P Messenger money transfer option in the U.K. and France that the service will no longer be available as of June 15.

Two months after Mastercard lawyers urged an English appeals court to follow the lead of antitrust judges that had tossed out a multi-billion pound class action lawsuit from U.K. consumers over credit card charges, that appeals court has ruled against the credit card giant.

French card issuer Prepaid Financial Services has partnered with Google to allow its customers in the U.K. to add their prepaid cards to the Google Pay mobile wallet.

With the U.K. government still at stalemate over Brexit, the prospect of leaving the European Union without a deal remains a very real possibility. Despite some recent agreements, this could have major implications for the U.K. payments industry.

Contactless transit fare systems are drawing lots of investment despite several false starts in the U.S. But new numbers out of London show there are clear and multiple benefits if the infrastructure can catch up.

The speed of technological change is forcing Britain’s retail payments authority Pay.UK to redesign its core infrastructure.

International payments provider Currencies Direct is offering a new online platform for batch payments to help clients making multiple payments in different currencies.

Visa’s proposal to buy Earthport — which already survived a brief bidding war with Mastercard — is getting a closer look by the U.K.’s antitrust watchdog group.

The U.K. government is consulting with train operators on smart pay-as-you-go ticketing. The goal is to enable consumers to travel across the U.K.’s entire railway network by tapping in and out with contactless cards or smartphones instead of paper tickets.

The U.K. prepaid gift card market is experiencing strong growth among consumers who buy them as gifts and for self-use, as well as among businesses that purchase them for customer loyalty programs and as employee incentives.

Direct lenders are gearing up for more business in the U.K. as they see banks shrinking their sterling corporate loan books in the wake of Brexit-linked volatility and slower economic growth.