UK Fintech News Roundup: The Latest Stories 01/03

Every Wednesday we delve into the latest fintech updates from across the UK. This week brings updates from Revolut, NatWest, Corefy and more.

Revolut and UK-Ukrainian aid join forces

UK-based neobank and fintech Revolut Has made British-Ukrainian aid its new charity partner to support victims of the war in Ukraine. Revolut has also added Collections, a new function in the donation platform. The feature groups charities around a common cause. The list of partners of the Ukraine Appeal in the app is led by British-Ukrainian Aid.

One hundred percent of donations made via the donation function in the Revolut app go to charitable partners. UK-Ukraine Aid is collecting and delivering first aid equipment, ambulances and evacuation vehicles, portable power stations and generators, as well as medical supplies and equipment to those who need it on the ground.

Vlad Yatsenkoco-founder and CTO of Revolut, said: “As a British-Ukrainian citizen, I thank everyone for their ongoing support and I invite you to join Revolut and British-Ukrainian Aid in helping those who need it most right now. With Revolut and UK-Ukrainian Aid 100 per cent of your donations go to charity.”

NatWest celebrates carbon impact offering and charity milestones

The number of NatWest customers who gain access Cogo carbon impact data via its banking app has increased by 10 per cent, according to NatWest’s 2022 annual report.

Cogo’s carbon impact data currently offers 334,500 active users; rose from 300,000 in just six months.

Emma KisbyEMEA Managing Director of Cogo, commented: “We are really encouraged to see this growth in the number of customers accessing our carbon footprint data and taking control of their personal environmental impact.

“By providing a point of contact with so many customers, banks have an important strategic role to play in helping the wider public to address their own climate impact. Today’s new figures are welcome confirmation of that opportunity.”

NatWest’s business offer Tulle also celebrated reaching a £500,000 milestone as it raises money for Give back to community fundsin collaboration with digital charity box Pennieswhich has accumulated since the launch in 2019.

For every card transaction that Tyl merchants take, the UK fintech provider donates a portion of the proceeds to the Giveback Community Fund. The fund, in turn, supports over 40 unique charities and causes, including Hospice UK, Macmillan Cancer Support and The Prince’s Trust.

Mike Elliffmanaging director of Tyl by NatWest, said: “The Give back to community funds continues to be at the heart of what Tyl stands for, and we are incredibly proud to have raised so much for those in need. Our partnership with Pennies has enabled us to bring in even more worthy causes from across the UK so that the Tyl Giveback Fund can help more communities thrive. We are also very pleased to see increased support for smaller organizations that may not attract significant charity funding.”

Embedded payments will grow – at the expense of cards

Juniper Research predicts that global revenue from embedded payments for embedded finance providers will reach $59 billion (~£48 billion) in 2027. This figure also represents growth of 84 percent from $32 billion (~£26 billion) in 2023.

The numbers, from Juniper Research’s Embedded Finance: Key Trends, Segment Analysis and Market Forecasts report, predict that the growth of integrated payments will reduce the dominance of cards in e-commerce.

Research co-author Nick Maynard explained: “To curb the proliferation of different payment options at checkout, merchants looking to improve the checkout process must focus on the most popular options with the lowest cost to the merchant to achieve success. Focusing on instant payment-related channels will significantly reduce costs compared to card payments and must be considered a top priority for merchants.”

Corefy launches payment reconciliation center

UK-based payment orchestration platform Corefy has launched its Payment Reconciliation Center to support instant automatic reconciliation for multiple accounts, payment methods and currencies.

The center offers tools to help resolve edge cases and monitor the company’s financial health.

It includes two-way and echo reconciliation, out-of-the-box vendor integrations, predefined import schemes, and an option to create custom ones.

Denys KyryrchenkoCEO and co-founder of Corefy, said: “Financial losses due to chargebacks, double payments, inappropriate actions by suppliers and the cost of identifying and investigating conflicts are common problems among our customers. All are related to errors in working with and handling of accounting data manually, so we decided to develop a new solution and automate the reconciliation processes.”