U.K.

As the lockdown subsided and stores began to re-open, the habits of the British shopper had changed, forcing banks and merchants to adjust.

The U.K. got an earlier start on open banking implementations, prompting European merchants and fintechs to turn to payments-as-a-service providers for rapid deployment.

Small shops are facing more competition online. Combined with the impact of Brexit, this has made it even more important for businesses to sell overseas.

With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic prompting more consumers to use contactless payments, the U.K.’s banks have lobbied for higher contactless payments limits, a move which could benefit the biometrics payments industry.

The bank will start with a mobile checking account for U.K. customers this year, followed by a full slate of products that could include credit cards, mortgages and car loans.

In a post-Brexit move, Mastercard is raising interchange rates for card-not-present transactions on U.K.-issued cards when spent with European merchants.

Anyone who experiences severe side effects as a result of this mass vaccination campaign must go through a relatively little-known program that has existed since 1979.

The simplest of mechanisms, having evolved over time, has now become a trending solution, a beacon of a brighter time and an essential service provider in an hour of need, says PPS' Tessa Unsworth.

Fundraising platform TapSimple has raised nearly £1 million (U.S. $1.3 million) in an investment round that will help it to continue to develop fundraising activity in what it describes as an increasingly cashless world.

The U.K. Supreme Court has rejected Mastercard’s attempt to force individual lawsuits over claims the card brand overcharged consumers and negatively impacted competition for more than a decade.