EMEA

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.

Buyers are scooping up many of the market's biggest banks, making it harder for others to gain scale.

Companies that handle sensitive customer data have even more to worry about when making an acquisition. Not only do they have to be sure the acquired company has good security, but they can't let their guard down even after the acquisition closes.

The U.K.’s late payments culture and its resulting impact on suppliers has many worrying about whether their clients are the next Carillion, a U.K. construction giant whose collapse left approximately 30,000 SMEs with millions of pounds in unpaid invoices.

The Florida company is also set to enter Alabama as part of the $360 million purchase.

The company agreed to buy Landmark Bancshare in Marietta, Ga., for $115 million.

TransferWise is the first nonbank to become a member of the U.K.’s Faster Payments service (FPS), but with Brexit on the horizon, it has to make sure it is similarly invested in other markets.

The news of the data breach cast a shadow over relatively strong first-quarter earnings for the Atlanta bank.

Despite its popularity — or perhaps because of it — the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has been at the front lines of many of the issues plaguing the cryptocurrency market. Its new e-money license in the U.K. could go a long way to easing some of those pains.