Latest global banking news

U.K. plans to extend regulatory tech

The Financial Conduct Authority plans to increase investments in technology, including the use of artificial intelligence to examine risks and benefits of new businesses. The authority contends improvements in examination technology over the past year have resulted in one in five firms being initially rejected for authorization, compared to one in 14 last year. There is also less of a backlog of applications. The FCA's recent moves include an investigation of buy now/pay later lending and new guidance that requires banks and building societies to assess the impact of closing branches or removing ATMs. —John Adams

SWIFT delays digital payment standards; names CFO

SWIFT has delayed its migration to the ISO 20022 protocols until March 2023, following the European Central Bank's delay of the T2 real-time settlement and liquidity management system, which has also been pushed back to March. ISO 20022 supports the exchange of more information about cross-border payments in a set of agreed-upon data fields. That's considered an important step in real-time payments and other cross-border transactions. For example, the pending FedNow real-time payment system, which is scheduled to launch in mid-2023, will use the ISO 20022 standards. SWIFT also made an executive appointment this week, naming Max Mamondez its chief financial officer. Mamondez has more than 25 years experience in international finance, including a stint leading strategic initiatives at the London Stock Exchange, and CEO for International Markets at Mastercard. —John Adams

Square courts salons in Ireland

Square has launched Square Appointments in Ireland, selling a product that combines a point of sale and booking software for the beauty and personal care sector. The product supports digital scheduling, reminders and payment processing. Sellers can add a booking button to their web page, and Square offers free web page construction as part of the package. The payment feature includes digital invoicing and the ability to keep users' cards on file. Square estimates there are more than 10,000 beauty and personal care businesses in Ireland. Square also reported internal research that found 36% of bookings are made when salons are closed. —John Adams

UBS, Deutsche among banks embracing CLSNet

Several banks have gone live on CLSNet, a standardized, automated international payment service that covers about 120 currencies. UBS, Deutsche Bank, Mashreq and Standard Chartered are among the institutions that recently joined the network, which includes seven of the world's 10 largest banks. CLSNet standardizes post-trade processes in an effort to reduce risk and latency in the foreign exchange market. CLSNet also aids in adherence to the FX Global Code, a set of "good practices" for the FX market, such as ensuring the calculations for currency exchange have a single common record. —John Adams

Barclays seeks to shut dozens of firms that haven’t repaid COVID loans

Barclays has asked U.K. courts to shutter nearly 100 businesses in recent months as it seeks to recover money loaned under a government COVID-19 program that's been blighted by fraud. The bank has sought winding-up petitions, which liquidate companies to pay debts, against at least 97 businesses since September, according to official records. The requests relate to loans of around £50,000 ($57,728) that Barclays gave to small businesses to help them get through the pandemic. The government's Bounce Back Loan Scheme encouraged banks to lend by guaranteeing any shortfall in repayments. Barclays was the biggest lender in the program, issuing almost 350,000 loans with a value of more than £10 billion. —Lucca de Paoli, Bloomberg News

Visa plans innovation center in Saudi Arabia

Visa will open a payment technology hub in Riyadh that will focus on virtual reality, Internet of Things applications and other emerging technology. The hub will include Visa technology experts and will focus on government, financial institutions and business clients. Use cases under consideration include data management, loyalty, disbursements and business-to-business transactions. Like other Visa hubs, the center in Saudi Arabia will focus initially on existing partnerships and programs in the country, and later export new products to other markets. —John Adams

Real-time payments set to debut in South Africa

Four of South Africa's largest banks are planning to roll out Payshap, a real-time payment service that is designed to extend banking to underserved communities by focusing on digital transactions. Standard Chartered, BNB, Nedbank and Absa are supporting Payshap at its launch, which is scheduled for early 2023. A wider rollout will follow. Payshap's use cases will also launch in two phases, according to Finextra. An initial deployment in early 2023 will include instant clearing, account-to-account payments and pay-by-proxy using an identifier such as a mobile phone number. The second release will add a request-to-pay function. —John Adams

Brazilian fintech Nubank opens new building in Sao Paulo

Nu Holdings, a Brazilian fintech backed by Warren Buffett, opened a building in Sao Paulo to be used for big events, training and parties. "We're going to be piloting a new type of setup to maximize the benefit that teams can get from working at the office," Brazil Chief Executive Officer Cristina Junqueira said in an interview. "We're going to be experimenting with spaces."

Nubank, as the company is known, has 7,000 employees and plans to boost that figure. The fintech is adopting a hybrid working-from-home schedule it's calling "Nu Way of Working." It suggests workers go to the office at least one week in every seven or eight. — Cristiane Lucchesi and Felipe Marques, Bloomberg News

Russia-born Revolut billionaire gives up his citizenship

Nikolay Storonsky, the 38-year-old co-founder and chief executive of London-based fintech startup Revolut, has renounced Russian citizenship amid his outspoken opposition to the war in Ukraine. Storonsky's move came before his father, an executive at a unit of Russia's Gazprom, was sanctioned by Ukraine in October. The news was first reported by the Telegraph. A former derivatives trader at Credit Suisse Group AG and Lehman Brothers, Storonsky and several partners launched Revolut in 2015. He's worth $6.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. —Bloomberg News