To say that 2020 was a transformative year would be putting it mildly. The ongoing pandemic has prompted profound changes in the way we live, work and socialise, with prolonged social distancing measures meaning that many aspects of our lives have moved online in the past 12 months. Kitchen tables now double up as desk space, meetings have been replaced by Zoom calls and Friday night drinks take place over FaceTime, instead of at the pub. When it comes to how we spend our money, too, the pandemic has pushed us towards the digital realm.
When fears of the virus first began circulating in Europe in February 2020, cash quickly fell out of favour, despite studies indicating that currency doesn’t transmit COVID-19. Shoppers were encouraged to use contactless payments wherever they could, and in the UK alone, ATM usage fell by 71 percent between early March and mid-April. When heading out to the supermarket and other essential shops, we have been ditching the cash and relying on our
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In a webinar held on 10 December 2020, Skadden partners Sonia Nijjar, Simon Toms and Ingrid Vandenborre were joined by Charles River Associates (CRA) Senior Adviser and Deputy Chair of the Bank of England’s Enforcement Decision Making Committee Philip Marsden and CRA Vice President Oliver Latham to discuss fintech M&A trends and developments, including:
the fintech industry’s response to recent deals;
the effect of regulatory developments on market dynamics, competition and innovation;
the key deal terms in negotiations of fintech M&A;
the role of antitrust regulators in transactions involving fintech; and
The UK s Open Banking regime has turned three years old.
This marks an opportunity to look back at its successes so far and the challenges it faces post-Brexit.
Insider Intelligence publishes hundreds of insights, charts, and forecasts on the Fintech industry with the Fintech Briefing. You can learn more about subscribing here.
The UK s Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) has marked three years since open banking went live across the UK and Europe, per a press release seen by Insider Intelligence. Since the EU s PSD2 came into effect on January 13, 2018, regulated third-party providers (TPPs), such as fintechs, can integrate with banks APIs to access consenting customers bank data and offer financial products.
Tax: the UK government is looking at using SMEs’ and self-employed individuals’ real-time financial transaction data to calculate and collect tax | Credit: Steve Buissinne/Pixabay
The UK government is exploring how technology can streamline tax administration. But HMRC must not add more burden to a community that is already being battered by COVID-19 and Brexit. Ian Hall reports
In December last year, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) issued a request for information (RFI) to investigate how it can use SMEs’ and sole traders’ real-time financial transaction data, obtained through open banking and therefore with their permission, to calculate and collect tax.