EMEA

Money launderers seem to be ramping up their use of a favorite strategy to clean their illegal funds — paying a small fee to a bank account holder to simply receive and send money transfers. And these so-called money mules are starting young.

Each year, 50,000 small and medium-sized businesses in the U.K. are forced under due to late payments. This is the net result of a culture where many large companies regularly make their suppliers wait far beyond agreed terms, before processing payment.

The Houston company had been an interested, but selective, acquirer before announcing this year's biggest bank deal.

Europe's PSD2 data-sharing standards are meant to foster cooperation in the market, but banks are getting more competitive as they seek to plug a revenue drain the new rules threaten.

Security is a top priority for financial institutions around the world. In the past few weeks, the U.K.’s TSB Bank has learned the hard way that availability is even more important. And when availability is an issue, security can’t be ignored.

A planned stock offering by the French banking giant would lower its stake in First Hawaiian to 49.9%.

The bank and European air carriers are hoping to cut into air fare payment fees that are as high as $8 billion per year.

Ulster Bank customers in the Republic of Ireland were left fuming as a second problem with the bank’s digital systems emerged only a week after the last mess, slowing down payments.

In one of the biggest fundraising rounds for a European fintech this year, Revolut Ltd., a U.K. startup that provides digital banking, received $250 million.

Contactless payments have become increasingly popular in the U.K. over the past couple of years due to the advantages they offer in terms of speed and ease of payment — but despite this, much of the U.K. public does not trust the format.