Top five stories of the week – 29 July 2022

Here’s our pick of five of the top news stories from the world of finance and tech this week.

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UK fintech investment defies global downturn with 24% growth

New data released by Innovate Finance, the industry body representing the fintech community in the UK, has revealed that the country saw a 24% year-on-year increase in fintech investments in the first half of 2022, despite a global slowdown in funding.

UK-based fintech firms received $9.1 billion in investment spread across 294 deals compared to $7.3 billion across 375 deals in the first half of 2021.

The US has received the most investment in the first half of this year, bringing in $25 billion, with the UK ranking second. India came third with $3.9 billion, Germany fourth with $2.4 billion and France fifth with $2.3 billion.

Read more here

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Apple sued over alleged “anti-competitive” Apple Pay practices

Tech giant Apple is being sued in the US over alleged anti-trust violations relating to its Apple Pay mobile wallet.

According to Reuters, plaintiff Affinity Credit Union says Apple’s “anti-competitive” behaviour forces 4,000 banks and credit unions that use Apple Pay to fork out at least $1 billion worth of excess fees a year.

The class action lawsuit was filed in the US District Court of the Northern District of California and alleges Apple “coerces” consumers who use its devices into using Apple Pay for contactless payments.

This is in contrast to manufacturers of devices that use Google’s Android operating system, which provide options for users over which wallet they wish to use.

Read more here

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Monzo rapped by CMA over failure to provide transaction history data

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has ordered challenger Monzo to ensure customers leaving the bank receive their historic financial transaction data.

The challenger informed the CMA it had failed to send transaction histories to more than 13,000 customers, despite reporting a similar breach last year.

Monzo has since contacted all affected customers to offer them a copy of their transaction history, the CMA says.

“It’s simply not good enough for a major bank like Monzo to repeatedly fail its customers by not following clear rules,” CMA senior director Adam Land says.

“Having a record of your financial transactions can act as important evidence needed to secure a loan or mortgage – so Monzo’s failure to provide these put an unnecessary obstacle in the way of thousands of customers.”

Read more here

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New group CEO and comprehensive strategic review at Credit Suisse

Credit Suisse has named Ulrich Körner as group chief executive officer (CEO) following the resignation of Thomas Gottstein. Körner, who is currently leading the Swiss bank’s asset management division, will start his tenure on 1 August.

He rejoined Credit Suisse in April 2021 having previously worked at UBS for 11 years, the last six as head of the firm’s asset management business.

At the same time, Credit Suisse has also announced a “comprehensive strategic review”, which aims “to shape a more focused, agile group with a significantly lower absolute cost base, capable of delivering sustainable returns for all stakeholders and first-class service to clients”.

Read more here

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Lloyds Banking Group to close 66 more bank branches

Lloyds Banking Group is set to close 66 more branches — 48 Lloyds Bank and 18 Halifax — between October and January of next year.

The closures are the latest in a long line of branch closures as high street banks grapple with changing customer behaviours and the shift to mobile and digital-first banking.

Lloyds Banking Group says it has 19.1 million online banking customers and 15.6 million mobile app users, while visits to the 66 branches set to close have tumbled by 60% on average in the last five years.

The new closures are on top of the 60 branch closures announced by Lloyds Banking Group in March, which are expected to be completed by September.

Read more here