Curious about potential AI applications for retail banking? Our AI expert, Laurent Lioté has published the first of his series exploring just that, starting with Spending Insights. Inside this brief AI insight, Laurent gives an...
Revolut lay claim to be “better than your bank account” – while I’m not sure it can quite match my bank account, it could be on the verge of supplanting my credit card, and here’s why… I’ve been an avid Revolut-when-travelling user...
Latest Revolut news (March 2018): Revolut launches Disposable Virtual Cards to tackle online fraud. What has Revolut been doing? This post will keep you up to date on all the innovations, new functionality, interesting...
What's new from challenger bank Monzo? This article will keep you up to date on all the innovations, new functionality, partnerships and user experience enhancements from the brand formerly known as Mondo. Latest...
Latest Starling news (December 2017): Starling receives regulatory approval to become a marketplace banking app. The full story Starling...
Here at Mapa, we shout from the rooftops about the UK challenger banks, regularly telling you all about what Monzo and...
Didn’t someone predict the imminent ‘death of the bank’? Well, banks are still here and they seem to be working their way around the Fintech market. ‘Banking is necessary, banks are not.’ In the 90s, Bill Gates called out banks for...
Tandem announced yesterday that it has agreed to acquire 100% of Harrods Bank. The takeover will bring around £80m into the digital banking start-up, allowing it to significantly speed up its launch plans and introduce a savings account. After...
Last week Accenture published a report questioning whether someone had ‘cancelled the FinTech Revolution’. It argues that evidence...
Simple was once the hero of challenger banks: it came to market well ahead of many other familiar neobanks and, for a long time, it was a truly world-beating bank. However, recently it has had some serious issues stemming from its ...
This year has been a busy one for London-based fintech startup Revolut, and it recently announced both credit lines and premium accounts in advance of a funding round through Seedrs. This week, a partnership with Trussle has also been announced. For...
It got its banking licence last summer, but UK digital-only challenger Starling Bank has now released the beta version of its mobile banking app to people on the waiting list. A small group of testers close to the brand enjoyed...
We know that amongst certain age groups, Facebook is a more trusted brand than a bank. Facebook also...
Last week was a big week for digital finance, and you didn’t have to go to Finovate Europe (although some of us
...
Consumer trust underpins all good brands. Since the 2008 recession, it is what banks have been working hard to mend. It’s what new FinTechs are aspiring to gain. It’s what established giants, like Facebook, are working hard to preserve. In...
Mapa has been closely following digital banking developments in the US market for several years. Simple, Moven and Ally are three key driving forces in the evolution of banking. While having similar outlooks on customer-centricity, they come from...
Earlier this week we wrote about the increasingly crowding UK banking space. One of the latest brands to announce that it is joining the market is peer-to-peer...
Another challenger bank has arrived on the UK market. Launched last week, Masthaven wants to move away from a ‘one-size fits all’ model, to offer a digital banking proposition with a...
Here we take a look at what the newest 'banks' in the UK have been up to, and what we can expect to see next from these digital-focused challengers. While some are focussing on testing products and using invitation-only strategies for customer...
Facing increasing competition from market challengers and FinTech providers, incumbent banks have three choices if they are to stay on top of innovation: build in-house solutions to match those of new market entrants, acquire competitors, or partner...
Challenger bank Mondo has received a banking licence from the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority, and has rebranded as Monzo. This follows a legal challenge to the business in June. UK regulators have granted the...
Mapa Analysts recently attended the Fidor Partnership Day, where the German digital bank explained the structure of their bank and intentions in the market. The plans discussed at the event, outlined below, show how ...
Gaby Mancero test drives offerings from two challenger banks to assess how successful they are at removing pain points, focusing on customer experience, and offering valuable new services. With an upsurge in the number of new entrants to the UK...
Our fourth report of the Mapa Insight Series is the first dedicated report looking at disruptors within the financial services space. A recent report not only found that global investment in fintech has tripled in 5 years to $3 billion, but that 35%...
Since the crash in 2008, the UK banking market has seen a lot of comment and press around the supposed break-up of the market, and the threat from new challengers. Slowly this momentum has grown, as new entities have joined the fray, and new names...
