U.K.

The U.K.-based fintech says that a recent crowdfunding campaign shows demand for its product, even though the amount it raised is well below funds obtained from VCs.

Vocalink beat out four other competing bids to secure a 10-year contract to provide real-time switching and settlements for U.K. ATM operator Link Scheme.

Even the homeless are getting on board with contactless payments, through a new U.K. wide initiative between Swedish payments company iZettle and the Big Issue Foundation, which enables homeless people to become street vendors by selling its its Big Issue magazines.

Rapid-fire acquisitions, partnerships and investments in the likes of Uber, Lyft and Grab are transforming these ride-sharing providers. And much of this activity is built on their ability to handle payments seamlessly as part of the experience.

Cash is not dead, but the burdens of ensuring access threaten to break long-standing ecosystems that sustain traditional payments.

U.K. fintech Revolut will use Bottomline Technologies' Universal Aggregator to manage a software-based real-time payments button.

The challenge with cash is its nature makes it hard to transition away from it. On the other end of the scale, digital-only businesses may never accept cash, meaning they may always exclude the cash-based consumer.

Amid the fallout from the catastrophic collapse of Carillion last year, the U.K. government has been getting tough on late payments.

Digital financial services provider Revolut is expanding a partnership with Visa that will allow it to nearly double its global footprint by adding 24 new markets, including the U.S.

The U.K. charity sector is currently facing its biggest ever crisis of trust — with a recent survey conducted by the Charities Aid Foundation finding that the proportion of the general public who donate to charity has declined for the third year in a row — amid rising concerns about wastage and corruption.

TransferWise once marketed itself as Robin Hood-style rival to banks. Now it sees itself as an ally.

The direct threats to the Trump presidency and Boris Johnson's tenure as prime minister of the U.K. create an extra layer of uncertainty for fintechs.

PayPal must pay a fine to the U.K.’s top financial watchdog for failing to keep its operations completely separate from iZettle while authorities investigated competitive effects of PayPal's purchase of the Sweden-based mobile POS provider.

As anti-money laundering requirements tighten in many jurisdictions, financial institutions and fraud prevention platforms are ditching legacy AML solutions for newer technology — but alternatives aren’t easy to come by yet.

Even though security vendors and payments providers are telling merchants they are ready to provide compliance for PSD2 on Sept. 14, a significant challenge remains in the learning curve and technology needs for merchants.

SumUp, a U.K.-based mobile point of sale company, needed a way to differentiate itself from larger rivals such as PayPal, Square and iZettle. Its solution is to offer faster settlement, in partnership with Starling Bank.

As the U.K. rapidly transitions toward a cashless society — with U.K. Finance predicting that by 2028, just 9% of payments will be in cash — even pocket money is going digital. And the disappearance of tactile interaction with cash changes how kids learn about budgeting.

Processors that rely on cross-border payments to reach new territories are feeling the economic squeeze of the looming Brexit deadline.

Gregor Dobbie is taking on the role of CEO of Vocalink as the company looks to expand its B2B payments business in the U.K.

Credit unions across the pond are hopeful that they will be able to push their legislative priorities once Parliament is no longer preoccupied with Brexit.