U.K.

Ten weeks remain until Great Britain is set to leave the European Union, but the chaos of the entire Brexit process brought much of the British credit union industry's regulatory priorities to a halt.

British payments technology company Moorwand is offering the first UnionPay prepaid cards in the U.K. on its UPayCard branded prepaid platform, with a larger roll-out planned for consumers and corporations during the first quarter of 2019.

U.K.-based Nuggets is integrating its blockchain technology to existing payment rails, creating a system wherein merchants will no longer have to access or store consumers' personal data.

While the gig economy has become more prevalent in recent years, the traditional banking market has provided few innovations for tackling the various payment-related challenges faced by businesses which utilise these workers.

London-based Vegannection has launched a prepaid card for vegans that’s accepted only at merchants that pass its standards test.

Samsung is exploring the development of a smartphone-based cryptocurrency wallet, according to a recent patent application the electronics giant filed in the U.K.

U.K. credit card spending rose an annual 7.5 percent in November, as consumers increasingly prefer to spend on plastic, according to UK Finance.

Visa has a deal to acquire the London-based bank payments provider Earthport for 198 million pounds ($250.6 million U.S.), pending approval from Earthport's shareholders.

China's Ant Financial, the Alibaba payments affiliate that operates Alipay, is reportedly in the advanced stages of talks to buy WorldFirst, an international payments provider based in London.

Mastercard and white label payment software company Cardstream are partnering to accelerate the deployment of Mastercard’s Secure Remote Commerce (SRC)-ready Masterpass wallet and its “Pay by Bank” solution.