U.K.

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.