Fintech, Finance, Technology, Banking Highlights – 16 April 2018
Sage partners Stripe for digital invoicing
Sage, the market leader in cloud business management solutions, today announced its partnership with Stripe, putting digital invoicing capabilities in the hands of businesses of all sizes. Chasing late payments is an administrative burden that falls hard on the shoulders of UK businesses. With invoice payments, companies can halve the time it takes to get paid and have unparalleled transparency of cashflow with full end-to-end reconciliation of accounts.
Small and Medium Businesses cite chasing payments as one of the greatest barriers to productive growth, with 17% of all payments in the UK made late and 9% eventually written-off as bad debt (Sage, The Domino Effect – The Impact of Late Payments, December 2017).
Users of Sage Business Cloud Accounting now have full invoice capabilities in addition to the payment services Sage offers. This partnership allows companies to fully digitise all invoicing and get paid through credit and debit cards in real-time, rather than spend time manually collecting and chasing down payments. This will address the damaging, productivity-draining, impacts of chasing payments.
DBS launches online remittance service SmartSend for non-DBS customers
DBS Bank announced the launch of SmartSend, an online remittance service that allows non-DBS customers to make secure, same-day money transfers to eight markets around the world.
SmartSend mirrors the ease of use and convenience that DBS customers currently enjoy with DBS Remit, which allows them to transfer money online anytime, anywhere via DBS/POSB digibank.
Upon account registration and verification, SmartSend enables customers to make same-day overseas money transfers at highly-competitive FX rates via a two-step process. Once they confirm the recipient details, customers then complete their order via a FAST transfer from their bank account. Customers are then notified via SMS once the transaction is completed.
SmartSend currently supports outbound money transfers to eight markets, namely Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, United Kingdom and United States.
Blockchain startup Nuggets heads to China with UK trade mission
Nuggets, the e-commerce payments and ID platform, has been backed by the Department for International Trade, the Mayor of London and the City of London, resulting in the company being invited on two major trade visits to China.
Nuggets’ continued rise to prominence comes in the wake of the UK Government’s declaration of a “new Golden era” in UK-China relations, and shows the potential of the “fintech bridge” agreed between the two countries in 2016. Underpinned by an agreement with the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the bridge aims to strengthen regulatory co-operation and create opportunities for fintech startups in both markets.
“To receive the support of these three highly respected international business bodies is fantastic news and testament to the rapid progress Nuggets is making in harnessing blockchain technology to enable individuals to own and control their personal data while making e-commerce payments.
“The technology we are building has huge implications for e-commerce markets around the world. It’s great to see the UK and London supporting innovative technology companies in this way,” said Alastair Johnson, CEO and Founder of Nuggets.
