- HSBC is planning to integrate Quantexa’s AI software to screen the data it holds on customers and their transactions against publicly available data, in a move to identify suspicious activity. Quantexa’s software scans structured and unstructured data on transactions from different sources, such as phone numbers, addresses and news reports, to look for suspicious links
- Civilised Bank, a challenger bank aimed at the SME sector, has announced that it is releasing its current banking licence in order to spend more time developing its IT infrastructure prior to its launch
- Moody’s has downgraded Barclays’ credit rating to Baa3, one level above high-risk junk bonds. The credit rating agency blamed the downgrade on the bank’s £1bn move to ‘ring-fence’ its UK retail arm which has made the bank a riskier overall investment
- Bank of England has reported that annual growth in lending to companies reached 3.2% in February 2018, up from 3% in January, suggesting that progress in Brexit talks has boosted firms’ investment confidence
- Citigroup has predicted that by 2025, North American banks could lose 34% of revenue from payments, investments, personal lending, SME lending and business lending to disrupters including fintechs, technology companies and the banks’ own start-ups. The only part of the North American market that is expected to escape the upheaval is credit card lending, with the disrupters’ share at 17% by 2025
- Starling Bank has launched Starling for Business, an app enabling business customers to manage their business bank account entirely from their mobile. There are no fees for having an account, no fees for making a payment to another bank account and no fees for withdrawing cash. Users can also access accounting software integrations and the Starling for Business Marketplace
