UK Fintech News Roundup: The Latest Stories 05/10

Every Wednesday we delve into the latest fintech updates from across the UK. This week brings updates from Investing Reviews, Chetwood Financial, Moneyhub, Payhawk and LendingMetrics.

Searches for “savings account” and “help with mortgage” see a dramatic increase

Platform for financial review Investment reviews has revealed that searches for ‘savings account’ increased by around 10 times the UK average; after his analysis of Google search data.

The analysis of Google Trends data also found that searches for “loan help” have increased by 513 percent since Sunday 25 September. The trend follows immediately Kwasi Kwarteng‘s mini-budget announcement; followed by a significant decline in the value of the pound.

The move led to almost 1,000 mortgage agreements being withdrawn from the banks due to rising interest rates. The data shows a significant amount of distress among UK citizens, many of whom will be directly affected by having to pay higher interest rates on their existing mortgages.

Financial services set for parent forum collaboration

Wrexham-based digital bank Chetwood Financial has entered into cooperation with the parent forum Yummy as they plan to launch a range of family-oriented financial services next year.

As part of the collaboration, Chetwood plans to provide the regulation, technology and infrastructure to launch products and services to ease the financial problems parents face in the current economic landscape.

Julia McCall, Chief Product Officer at Chetwood Financial said: “We are thrilled to announce our new partnership with Mumsnet. Parents face significant financial pressure, whether it’s a drop in income while on maternity leave, the rising cost of childcare or a sharp increase in the cost of living.

“We work with Mumsnet members to co-create products and tools that work to address some of the challenges they face. Chetwood is proud to be working with Mumsnet to make this a reality.”

Open banking facilitates NHS entertainment access

Open data and payment platform Moneyhub has entered into a partnership with a provider of telecommunications services WiFi SPARK in an effort to simplify access to entertainment for NHS patients.

The move will bring open banking payments as an offer to access key communication systems; to add to the existing system for patients. The only options available prior to this collaboration were to pay for access by credit card, call a call center and pay over the phone or by using a hospital vending machine to obtain a code that could be used at the bedside terminal.

Sam SeatonCEO of Moneyhub said: “We are thrilled to partner with WiFi SPARK in rolling out open banking payments to the healthcare sector. The work WiFi SPARK does is incredibly important to patient happiness, wellbeing and empowerment, and we are excited to bring the benefits of Open Banking for patients who need entertainment access.”

Payhawk launches credit card for UK businesses

Expense management platform Payhawk has launched a business credit card to give customers the option of choosing between credit and debit cards.

This addition to Payhawk’s offering aims to provide an alternative to traditional credit cards, with one that gives customers the ability to gain real-time visibility into company spending along with a host of other benefits.

Hristo Borisov, CEO and co-founder of Payhawk, explained: “As we started serving more UK businesses, we discovered that many businesses prefer credit over debit cards for cash flow reasons. Until now, many have been forced to make a decision between smart debit cards like Payhawk, or traditional credit card products that don’t benefit from any enterprise technology and may have lower acceptance rates.”

Scottish Building Society appoints Hampshire-based credit agency

Scottish Building Society has appointed a credit reference agency LendingMetrics to deliver its credit decision platform.

LendingMetrics will offer its Auto Decision Platform (ADP) underwriting solution to support community manual underwriting; a central part of the business.

David WylieCommercial Director at LendingMetrics, commented: “We are delighted that ADP has been selected as the best solution by the Scottish Building Society. They have been a pleasure to work with and we now look forward to delivering to them, complete autonomy over their [decision-making] logic.”